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Original poster

Help please! Fracture at playtime

53 replies

MagicMN · 20/04/2013 09:51

Hi.
Mynson is in reception. I went to pick him up yesterday. He came out in tears. The T.A. said he bumped his face at 2.10 while running in the playground, he was taken inside he was fine, and that he started crying again when he was putting his coat on few minutes before. "he is tired", she said. We arrived home, he said he could not take his coat off cos his shoulder hurt. I took him to a&e.
Result:fracture of the collarbone.
I am furious!!!
The way they dismissed his tears, the way they let them run madly at playtime, everyhting. This is supposed to be an "outstanding" school.

Can anyone suggest me what to do? Do i have to speak to the teacher first? Or should i go to the headteacher first? On monday we have an apoointment at hospital so he will not go to school but i could pop to see the headmaster?
Could i sue the school??? I am really furioous!!!
Any suggestion will be appreciated because i dont know how to deal with this.
Thanks!

OP posts:
malteserzz · 20/04/2013 10:01

If it happened at 210 then it couldn't have been long before you picked him up anyway it wasnt like they'd left him in pain for hours. I can understand that you are upset so go in on Monday and ask exactly what happened and if he told them that his shoulder hurt. Accidents do happen

MagratGarlik · 20/04/2013 10:03

I can understand why you are furious - I would be too. They should have at have at the very least, got him checked over by a nurse. But, I also understand how it can be done. When my ds1 broke his leg, I didn't realize and waited 30 minutes before taking him to A&E (and then felt awful).

I'd go in calmly and ask for a meeting with both his teacher and the head. Explain, calmly, that your ds broke his collar bone and what you think they should have done to prevent it or make detection of the broken bone more efficient.

If you go in all guns blazing, you will lose any support from the staff and your ds will get a much harder time at school.

StuffezLaYoni · 20/04/2013 10:05

What would suing the school achieve?

headinhands · 20/04/2013 10:05

Sorry about your son op and hope he makes a speedy recovery but what changes would you like the school to make? Not let them ever run outside and have them call the parents every time a child hurts themselves. I'm certain they wouldn't have ignored an obvious broken bone op and it sounds like they did everything right. I suspect this thread will soon have countless accounts of parents who themselves missed a dc's fracture. It happens.

IDontDoIroning · 20/04/2013 10:05

First accidents do happen at outstanding or other schools. School children do run round madly at play time that's quite normal, however there should be adequate supervision.

However, you are quite right to be concerned. - if he hit his face how is his collarbone fractured?

This suggests that they really dont know what happened or didn't investigate the incident properly.

I would go into school on Monday, tell them he has an injury sustained at school and tell them you have concerns over how it was dealt with at the time.

SoupDragon · 20/04/2013 10:09

He was taken inside and was fine. Did they have any reason to think it was something more than a bump?
Could he have been fine until the movement of putting on a coat properly dislodged the collar bone and caused more pain?

SoupDragon · 20/04/2013 10:10

Could i sue the school?

Missed this bit. FFS, he had an accident. It happens. What do you plan on suing them for??

literarygeek · 20/04/2013 10:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 20/04/2013 10:12

What would be the basis upon which you sue the school?

Is it because your son fell while running and broke his collarbone? Children do fall over when having fun and unless it was because of poor surface maintenance or allowing tinies to run with much bigger older children, then I struggle to see a case.

Or is it because they didn't spot his injury? They should have checked him over properly but if he had stopped crying quickly then they wouldn't think there was much wrong with him and in the busyness of the last few minutes of the day it would be easy to miss the connection with the previous fall.

I hope your ds heals quickly. Try not to act all angry about it around him, because that will be confusing and distressing to him.

literarygeek · 20/04/2013 10:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

rufusnine · 20/04/2013 10:14

In my experience as a first aider when a child presents to you with an injury you ask age appropriate questions as to what happened and which parts hurt and deal with the injuries as appropriate - sometimes a child may be so focussed on 1 injury ie face that they do not mention any other point of injury at the time and it may only come to light later as in this case.

headinhands · 20/04/2013 10:20

Literary - my son broke his elbow falling over on grass. Dd broke her arm falling off a bench. Sometimes it takes just a freak angle of impact to fracture a bone.

DreamsTurnToGoldDust · 20/04/2013 10:21

Accidents happen, horrible but why on earth would you sue the school, and what for? Being a child?

SoupDragon · 20/04/2013 10:23

Collarbone fractures can be caused by going over bike handlebars and hitting cement.

I know someone who fractured their collarbone running into an older sibling.

MsPickle · 20/04/2013 10:25

Literary my ds aged 2.5 snapped his collarbone with a fall from the arm of an armchair. He insisted he was fine. I took him home on the train, he howled going in and out of the buggy but otherwise didn't. I had to give him calpol in the wee hours because he was upset which prompted the A&E trip in the morning. It was clean through. I felt like a shit mum but there wasn't anything obvious from the original fall to suggest collarbone/real problem apart from a few tears which passed.

Op-his healed fast and well and he was back to normal speed in about 10 days. Hope your ds does the same.

5318008 · 20/04/2013 10:28

yes they are called accidents not on-purposes

poor thing, not pleasant, I am sorry

literarygeek · 20/04/2013 10:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hulababy · 20/04/2013 10:40

We had a similar situation occur at my school last term.

A little boy in our Y2 class bumped into another child at school. His shoulder hit another child's cheek. Both boths were initially hurt and upset. The other's boys cheek was red but it died down and he was fine in himself within a few minutes.

The other little boy was very upset. He has autism and often reacts strongly to any form of bump. He was not reacting more than normal though so the headteacher and the deputy head sent him back to class. they were the ones dealing with the incident at breaktime on the first aid duty.
His class teacher, me, his 1:1 and another teacher saw him. He was very upset but he was moving his arm, there were no marks at all on his arm, not even any redness. He had taken his jumper off and then on again by himself with no additional change in his reactions. It was already almost 3pm and his mum was due at 3:20pm anyway. We consoled him as much as we could and explained everything o mum when she arrived and we did suggest a trip to A&E to rule anything out, as it was impossible to know from his reactions at the time and that he could move his arm as before.

Mum did take him to A&E and he had indeed broken his collarbone.

We all felt dreadful, really badly. Everyone obviously spoke to mum about it and as it happened the timings meant she couldn't have arrived earlier anyway.

But sometimes things are not that clear cut.

Hulababy · 20/04/2013 10:41

Why would you sue the school?
What do you hope to achieve by suing the school?
How much would you hope to receive?

Hulababy · 20/04/2013 10:44

Oh and yes, fractures can happen with very little force and even parents can not notice.

DD broke her foot when she tripped running from our kitchen to the living room. She did scream out but stopped within a short period of time. It was sore and painful to walk on, but there was no mark and no swelling. She has a tendency to "twist" and "sprain" herself so was not outside the realms of normal for her tbh.
Sent her to school the next day and it was only half way through the day that I received a phone call as her foot had started to really hurt. She had broken her metatarsal and badly sprained the tendons in her toes.

PoppadomPreach · 20/04/2013 10:45

You want to sue the school because they let your child run in the playground?

Focus on getting your son better, not on making some money out of an accident.

Shameless.

SneakyBiscuitEater · 20/04/2013 10:52

my DS broke his wrist in reception class. He fell less than a metre onto that spongy rubber floor but put one arm out to save himself and all his weight went on it and it broke. This was at lunchtime and he was taken inside. Apparently he didn't cry but was cradling his wrist and wouldn't let the teachers see it. They called my DH and said the thought he should go to hospital just in case and would we like them to take him or would we like to pick him up. DH rang me at work and we both arrived a school 15 minutes later.

He seemed a little upset but was able to wiggle his fingers and turn his wrist around normally although he complained it hurt to do that. I thought it would probably be just a sprain but after ages at the hospital it turned out to not just be broken but displaced. He had to have it manipulated before being cast and only just avoided a pin and plate.

My point being that it wasn't a nasty fall and he didn't seem overly fussed about it but it was a serious break (8 weeks in plaster). at no point did it occur to me to sue the school. Accidents happen but perhaps you could ask school to review the case to see if they had missed any signs that this required medical attention.

intheshed · 20/04/2013 11:00

I feel for you and your son, but don't see what you could sue the school for, or what they could have done differently. A friend's DS broke his wrist playing football at school, a girl in DD's class recently sprained her ankle falling off the climbing frame at school. These things do happen.

radicalsubstitution · 20/04/2013 11:16

Could i sue the school??

Surely this has to be a wind-up? No-one in their right minds would actually make this comment on this board. It's just inviting a flaming.

Go ahead - sue the school.

After all, taxpayers (and schools) have nothing better to spend their money on.

spanieleyes · 20/04/2013 11:25

Clearly "outstanding" schools shouldn't have accidents, leave that to the "good" schools!

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