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Original poster

Baby injured by negligence: do I complain, sue, what?

126 replies

cockle · 06/11/2004 21:10

Feeling very angry after a horrible experience in a children's hairdressers with DS. He's just 9 months and it was his first haircut - a bit of a whim really but his hair was very wild and patchy. Wish I'd never bothered.

Hairdresser strapped him into chair and pumped chair up to quite a height (1 metre?). Haircut over, he suddenly plunged headfirst onto the floor - it turned out the harness hadn't been attached to the bl**dy chair.

His head and face are badly bruised, grazed and swollen - he looks a complete mess - but TOUCH WOOD he seems to be otherwise OK - took him to A&E and had him thoroughly checked over - just keeping an eye on him now (they let us take him home as DP is a doctor).

The fact is though, a fall like that could have killed him. The hairdresser was reasonably apologetic, but the manager was crap - EVENTUALLY appeared and asked what had happened, then wandered off again to serve other customers. Accidents will happen, but a place like that which specialises in babies in children should (a) have proper equipment, (b) use it properly, and (c) train its staff in safety procedures. Hairdresser admitted she hadn't checked the harness was attached (it wasn't part of the chair).

So now what? I am furious and want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. I also want to make these people face up to the seriousness of their negligence and make them realise that you cannot afford to be blase and negligent when dealing with children. What would you do?

OP posts:
jasper · 07/11/2004 09:56

cockle I am truly shocked on your behalf and would like to commend you and your husband on your restrained and thoughtful approach to this incident. A letter in the first instance seems a good idea.

Please let us know how they respond.

Like you I would never have thought to check the harness.

MrsBigD · 07/11/2004 10:43

cockle, hope ds is feeling better. [cuddles]

That's outragous! I commend your restraint, if that would have happened to dd DH would have gone beserk there and then!

Definitely go for the letter first and see if you get any response. If not then take it further as it's an absolute shame that this happened.

Original poster
cockle · 07/11/2004 11:04

agy, maomao, jasper, MrsBigD - thank you. All feeling much better now. (Thanks especially for reassuring me about checking the harness - I was a bit hurt by the implication that it was us who were negligent with DS's safety.)

Going to write today and get it out of our systems.

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Rowlers · 07/11/2004 11:08

Glad DS is on the mend, Cockle.
Good luck with your letter writing. I'd be tempted to find out a H+S and legal situation and include this in the letter to point out to them that you COULD and WILL take it further. I recently had to make a complaint and did it all wrong. Went and complained and was fobbed off because I didn't know what I was entitled to. Maybe you need to decide just what it is you want before you start writing, to be sure of a satisfied outcome?
Hope it all works out.

doobydoo · 07/11/2004 11:20

Did not mean to appear unsympathetic as we all do things that we beat ourselves up about but we also have to know when things are our fault too and not completely blame others.Which I am sure you are not.
I hope your little boy is feeling better this morning.

Original poster
cockle · 07/11/2004 11:31

Thanks for your input doobydoo but it's probably best if I don't respond to that.

Thanks also for your good wishes for DS.

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Original poster
cockle · 07/11/2004 18:13

Have written a letter detailing our concerns, asking what they've done to make sure it doesn't happen again, and saying we're seeking legal action but would like to give them the opportunity to respond first.

Have cc'd the letter to the local Health & Safety.

Thanks again everyone - will update you when we get a response.

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acer · 07/11/2004 19:20

I would say that this is the Hairdressers fault and not yours, they are responsible for the correct equipment and should have made sure he was properly strapped in. Hope you are bothe well, and good luck.

hercules · 07/11/2004 19:30

Definelty carelessness on behalf of the hairdressers. If they cant ensure your childs safety whilst sitting in the chair they shouldnt cut childrens hair.

RnB · 07/11/2004 19:44

Message withdrawn

jnbsmum · 07/11/2004 20:01

First of all i would like to say i'm really glad your ds is feeling better.
I would definatly react in excactly the same way as you and write a letter of complaint first to give them the opertunity to respond. Well done also for really keeping your head together. I personally would be in a state even now.

I would like to say though that your ds may become afraid of going to the hairdressers so it may be usefull to invest in some hair clippers. My ds had a traumatic experience with his first hair cut(although nowhere on this scale). He was litterally pinned to the chair by the woman who then chopped away while he was screeming. he was only 13mnths at the time. I wouldnt say anything to the woman. I just paid her and promptly left warning everyone i new about it. I felt absolutly awful for putting him through it. Still to this day(hes now 4) he will only let me touch his hair.
Well done to you for speeking up. Hairdressers need training when dealing with children. We need more child friendly ones around.

SofiaAmes · 07/11/2004 20:54

I don't think you should beat yourself up about the harness. I think in the same situation I might have checked if the harness was fastened around my child, but it would have never occurred to me to check whether it was attached to the chair. In fact, I recently made a similar mistake with my ds's car seat...I carefully strapped him in and halfway down the road realized that the seat itself had been unbuckled from the car. I'm glad to hear that your dp is a paediatric surgeon, because I'm sure that must have been very reassuring for you both to be able to realize exactly how serious (or non serious) your ds's injuries were. I remember when my ds went down the stairs at our old house and spent hours trying to research the symptoms of concussion...eventually became clear that a child who is happily eating his dinner, asking for more and then rapidly dismantling the house is unlikely to be suffering from concussion.

Branster · 07/11/2004 21:38

Poor you... But shouldn't you have first ensured your own child is strapped in? Especially as he's only 9m old.
I wouldn't bother blaming anyone really, if I was you I'd blame myself over and over. My own child is my own responsability.

jasper · 07/11/2004 22:05

Branster I think you may have missed out on some details...cockle's baby son WAS strapped in - she watched as the hairdresser strapped him in but it transpired that the harness itself was not attached to the chair.

I don't think many of us would ever have thought to check for this! Certainly not me.

As Sofiaames describes I have done a similar thing myself when my kids were very small - strapped them into baby car seats which were then not attached to the car. I remember my dd ending up in the rear footwell, still firmly strapped into her baby seat!

In this respect I can see it was a careless but understandible accident on the part of the salon but that is not really the issue here. From cockle's description the manager's attitude was far from appropriate - he/she should have been falling over themselves checking the baby was okay and giving reassurances this would never happen again.

Cockle , how is the wee lamb tonight?

SofiaAmes · 08/11/2004 01:02

I agree with jasper. I understand that the main reason that cockle is so upset is that the manager was very dismissive of the incident and therefore seems unlikely to rectify the problem in order to ensure that it doesn't happen again. That's not just an accident, that's negligence.

nightowl · 08/11/2004 01:29

branster are you joking? i think that was really harsh. its an awful thing to happen but i certainly dont think it was cockle's fault. i wouldnt have thought to check the harness was attached to the chair either...you just assume it is. the same as i dont go into a cafe or restaurant with my screwdriver and check that the highchair is securely fixed together..i also dont look underneath it to see if its properly fixed up...i dont imagine many people do because you expect that it should be safe. hope your little one is ok now cockle, dont beat yourself up xx

kinderbob · 08/11/2004 02:36

Being nosey really but...

Did they charge you for the haircut?

Original poster
cockle · 08/11/2004 10:32

Jasper, Sofia & nightowl - thank you so much. Branster, I don't know what to say. I went cold when I read what you said about blaming myself. As a mother I blame myself for everything, all the time. I don't need any help with that. I saw DS strapped into the chair. I did not know that the harness was not part of the chair. This is my first baby and I've actually only ever seen harnesses on highchairs, buggies etc. where the harness is part of the chair and assumed this was the same. The hairdresser admitted that not only had she not attached the harness, but that their normal practice was simply to wrap the end of the harness round the base of the backrest. This was therefore an accident waiting to happen and I don't know how I could have been expected to anticipate it. I spend my whole life anticipating danger for my little one, and as I said below, DP is a paediatric surgeon who deals with casualties to babies every day and is constantly hyper-vigilant to danger. Neither of us inspected the harness in detail - of course now I wish I had but to blame me for that is not entirely helpful. The shop IS guilty of negligent practice and I think they know it. What's frightening is that they don't seem to care.

I'm used to finding these boards warm and supportive places and am really shocked at the two very harsh responses I've had here when I'm in the middle of a pretty traumatic situation. DS is by no means out of the woods yet - was awake all night last night with a temperature and pain, and will take some time to heal.

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Original poster
cockle · 08/11/2004 10:34

kinderbob - I think if they'd asked me for any money my restraint might have been tested a little.

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CountessDracula · 08/11/2004 10:36

cockle from a legal point of view, I can't see where your loss it - what are you going to sue for? You need more than bruises really. Some pain and suffering and stress on your part maybe? Honestly I think you are better off demanding a written apology from them and leaving it at that or it will cost you money. Plus report them to the HSE etc which will make them pull their socks up.

Hope your poor ds is better soon.

zephyrcat · 08/11/2004 10:38

Hiya cockle - just came to check back and see how you and ds were doing and what you had decided to do with the hairdressers and have to say I'm quite shocked at some of the responses!! I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have checked that the harness was attatched to the chair - I mean - what is the point in them putting a harness on in the first place if it's not attatched to anything?? lol Glad to see you are both ok though and sounds like you are going about it all the right way. Well done you

CountessDracula · 08/11/2004 10:38

(oh and also they would have public liability insurance so you would not be getting the money from them but their insurance company!)

jampot · 08/11/2004 10:39

CD - thats what I was wondering at 9.30am 6/11 - I hope little cockle is okay today xx

CountessDracula · 08/11/2004 10:40

oh sorry Jampot only read the first post!

Original poster
cockle · 08/11/2004 11:01

Thanks CD, see my post below: Sunday, 7 November, 2004 6:13:08 PM

I have sought advice and we would actually have a case to sue - DS may only have cuts and bruises (we hope) but that is still a head injury - his face and head are a complete mess TBH, this isn't just a trivial bump - a baby falling 1 metre is taken seriously by the law

Having said that, we're not big on the compensation thing and as I said below we've started off with a letter and cc'd it to the HSE.

Zephyrcat et al - thank you so much.

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