Has this happened to anyone else?

[SteelMomma]

Hi. This is my first thread, not sure if this is the right place or not and I'm sorry it's so long, but here goes.

Last Friday night, DD was having a piggy back ride on DH's back. We were altogether in the same room and she started falling, so DH held on tight to stop her until I could safely take her. Called an ambulance, paramedic after half an hour happy that there was nothing wrong (she stopped her awful sobbing after being offered a Charlie & Lola DVD!) but said because of her age (she's just under 2) he would advise we take her to A&E.

Took her and after 2 x-rays (one where she moved and one where she stayed still) the radiographer said she'd bent her collarbone. Back in A&E and we are shown an x-ray with a clear break in it, but it looks to us as if it's the one where she moved because her spine was all bent. Long story short, doctor on the end of a phone, who didn't examine or see DD or us, decided he couldn't make his mind up whether our story was a reasonable explanation for her injury and reported us to social services.

Nurse at the hospital told us she could see quite clearly that it was an accident and that DD was well loved and looked after, but because the doctor wasn't sure, they had to refer. Last Saturday both I and DH were interviewed under caution at the police station.

Both my GP and HV are on our side, GP doesn't even believe DH has fractured her collarbone because within an hour or two of the accident, she was moving it fine and hasn't needed any painkillers. HV agrees.

Still waiting for social worker to get in touch to start the core investigation, been told it's because they have no great concern for DD's safety. Meanwhile, DH and I are going through hell. Want to wrap DD up in cotton wool because I'm terrified in case she hurts herself and feel like all the simple enjoyment of life has gone.

I'm all for child protection, but when right from the start, the nurse in the hospital told us this investigation would come to nothing, why are they putting us through it?

Have any of you had similar experiences?

Sorry you are going through this.

I think it is pretty standard that they report many childs injuries to SS, just in case, particularly if they are not sure or convinced how it happened.

It is awful when you know you haven't done anything wrong but there is those who would be lying about such things and need investigating.

I'm sure you will be looked at, GP and HV spoken to and that will confirm that you are telling the truth.

When I had to take my son to hospital the HV rang but no one else. When my daughter had an accident and we had to be blue lighted to hospital I can't remember if the HV rang. This was 5-8 years ago so things might have changed.

It must be worrying but if you know you have done nothing wrong try not to worry.

It's standard practice for hospitals to report injuries to a child when the reason given doesn't appear to match up. It may just be a quick visit and call but they will likely want to do a short assessment. If GP and HV are onside I doubt it will come to much but need to complete legally.

try not to worry about it (easier said than done I know)
If your GP and HV are supporting you then that is a big positive.
We have been there when DS3 was a baby - a bloody nightmare which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. They sent the most junior SW to me who was completely hopeless but, evenually, they "decreed" that DS3 wasn't at risk. Stay calm and always be polite and reasonable.
Once your child can talk, it becomes easier in this type of situation - I was a bag of nerves every time he fell over until he could explain what had happened himself.
Hang in there.

It is standard practice, I remember my brother being interviewed when my niece fell off her bike at the age of 3, she is now 29.

Hope your DD is OK.

The thing is for every genuine accident like this theres some that arent genuine - in order to monitor it succesfully every accident has to be looked at - if you are innocent it will be proven - those that are hiding facts are the ones to worry.

Some 14 years ago ds and I fell off a bus i broke a bone in my ankle and he split his head open .......his head seemed to heal ok then 2 days later as i washing around the 'scab' it came away to reveal a huge gaping hole we rushed him to hospital and he was treated later on reading the accident report (we sued the bus company) a Dr at the hospital had to sign and say he believed the accident to be as we told him and there was no reason for him to think otherwise.

Sorry you are going through this but it is, I believe, standard practice here in Ireland so probably in the UK too.

When ds2 broke his collarbone, all the doctors involved made a point of ignoring me, talking directly to ds2 and asking him exactly how it happened.
I think, after listening to him rambling on about ds1 and him playing with waterballoons ad nauseum till he finally got to the bit where he slipped awkwardly on the wet grass, they were satisfied that it wasn't me or dh that did it!

Because your dd is so young and can't talk for herself, they have to be more careful, and importantly to be seen to have fully investigated what happened.

I'm sure it will all turn out fine. Everyone knows kids have accidents.

Thank you everyone. I think I needed to hear that it isn't just us, though it doesn't make it any easier. If you could see DD now, you would have to ask which arm she'd hurt because she is using it perfectly normally.

I will post again and let you know what the outcome is.

p.s. a couple of other points I forgot in my first post:

doctor at hospital, when filling in the safeguarding form, admitted she didn't know what the form was for, or what most of the questions meant! (one question asked if child was looked after, she circled yes until I pointed out that there was a supplementary question which asked "if yes, which Authority?". She then changed the answer to "not known").

Police went to get the report from the hospital next morning but it wasn't there. Don't know if/when it arrived last week, but on Monday, I was told by them that the consultant repsonsible was now on holiday and his secretary was "looking for it".

No-one told HV anything about it until my GP rang her on Wednesday after I'd been to see her again in bits. Apparently, HV is one of the first people who should be informed. She came to see us and then rang local social services to find out what was going on, duty social worker then rang me and apologised, saying until 30 minutes before, they weren't even aware of our family or case.

a complete joke..... and how many children are at risk of being seriously injured while they waste their time on cases like yours?

Made me despair....

It's all over!! The police closed their investigation a couple of weeks ago, they told me that they had absolutely no reason to think it was anything other than an accident. The social worker paid us a second visit on Wednesday and said that she's only coming once more and that's for us to read the final report. She spoke to DD's nursery and our HV and she said that all comments were incredibly positive. In fact HV made it clear to her that she cannot believe that our family has been put through this. Moreover, having been showed by us (with the aid of a toy monkey!!) what happened, she thinks it was perfectly possible that it would have caused said injury.

Have to say the social worker couldn't have been nicer, she made it very relaxed and easy for us.

Great news Steelmomma !!