I need help. I’m utterly distraught and upset with my sons school, does anyone have any advice?

[mummytorands]

So I’ve been awake all night with keeping my 8 year old as comfortable as possible and yesterday’s events and I wanted to go to the school today and complain about how they handled things but I think I’m going to write to the chair of governors instead so I want to box clever.

So, I leave work yesterday (I work 10 minutes from the school by car) at 2:45 my children are usually let out at 3:10-3:20. School call at 2:50 telling me my son (8) has had a fall during playtime she explained he hurt his arm, elbow hip and knee. He was grazed seen by first aid but very upset and could I get him early of course I said yes I’ll be 5 minutes. Asked then as it’s unusual for him to be as upset as she was saying as he’s quite a tough cookie has he done any damage. No she said first aid moved his arm but seems ok but he’s very upset and think it’s best you came early and that she would get my daughter for me too (5). I pull up to school a TA is bringing them both out and it was quite evident to me we needed to get to hospital. I could clearly see my son was in pain, he was holding his arm, his wrist and hand were limp. I was given no accident form but didn’t think about that until later as my main concern was to get him medical attention. I called minor injuries they said they had a 3 hour wait and they wouldn’t be able to xray today so off to a&e I went which was heaving but we were dealt with pretty swiftly. Xray and he’s broken both radius and ulna and one of the fractures is going into the growth plate. I won’t know the full extent until we see the fracture clinic in 24 hours however we were sent home in a plaster cast and sling and I’ve kept him comfortable with calpol alternating nurofen. My plan is to go into school tomorrow asking for the accident book copy but I want to see it and not have it done and back dated. I will tell them he won’t be in for the next couple of days until I know more but I’m not disclosing the damage he’s done until I know for definite.

I am furious. He very clearly to me had broken his arm the moment I seen him. She played it down to me on the phone and his arm had been manipulated and it should not have been. They did not contact me fast enough and no accident from was given. Does anyone have advice? I want to complain because I’m just so unhappy about the handling and I don’t want it to happen again but I want the first aid training to be looked into also. My poor boy.

Our school certainly do give parents a copy of the accident slip and keep a hard copy in school.

The kind of arm fractures that cause organ damage 😀

Lordy, yes! Just because your school has an afternoon break doesn't mean all do. Sometimes parents don't appreciate this fact. It will carry on throughout their school lives. Some schools do full written reports and some don't. Some schools allow time off for (insert occasion) and some don't.

It isn't wrong of me to point this out. Especially in the context of people jumping down someone's throat at the time of their distress.

No I wasn’t saying that. You’ve missed the point and continue to do so. And now you’re going round in circles.

I am a first aider (not school) and would ask a student to move their arm as a first port of call to assess the injury. I probably wouldn't manipulate it myself.

I would expect to see an accident slip on handover tbh especially if you obviously needed to take him to hospital - it is helpful to have a crib sheet to take with you for A&E staff.

My daughter sustained a severe injury and fractured her skull at school. The school first aider did their job and we took her to A&E, but when we got there did not have all the info the hospital were looking for and daughter had memory loss due to the nature of the injury so couldn't fill in the blanks. Rather than launching into a complaint/combative interaction with school, we worked with them and helped improve their accident reporting procedure for head injuries so the slip would have the details that A&E would be asking for if they have another severe head injury in future. It's not necessarily a case of someone having done something wrong so don't go into it seeking to apportion blame. I would ask to meet with senior staff though to discuss and clarify exactly what happened and to ask for an overview of how they report accidents for your own understanding.

If you read that post more carefully you would see that the point about bone fractures that can cause organ damage was in a separate sentence to the one about long bone fractures. Intentionally, so that no-one could get confused.

Im sorry that happened. Excellent post.

All our logging is done online.

The properties of a fracture can only be ascertained by X-ray. A long bone fracture can damage other tissues - blood vessels, nerves, muscles. Some bone fractures can result in organ damage

You said this. What you’re not appreciating is that neurovascular damage isn’t going to be picked up only by attendance at hospital. It can also happen after a sprain.

All of these verified first aiders who are taught to check for movement and sensation and assess blood flow (colour) after an injury are assessing for neurovascular integrity. This will also happen at hospital. If the hand is pink, well perused and moves normally fancy additional scans aren’t needed and a ride in a parent’s car is fine

It reads a bit like AI, to be fair

Thank you! It was a very traumatic time and a fairly long recovery process but fortunately no lasting damage was done and she is back to her chaotic self now! These things do happen, children will hurt themselves and break their bones, we just need to make sure we all work together to ensure they are looked after best as possible when it happens 🙂

Take a breath, OP.

1st aiders at school aren't medics, nurses, doctors, etc. They are 1st aiders ... who are trained in basic first aid (grazes, cuts, head bumps, etc) and are told to call for outside help (parents, paramedics) in the event of any 'real' injuries like potential breaks, concussions, struggling to breathe, etc. And they did here, they called you.

By 'manipulate', I imagine they asked the child to show them if they could move their own arm/hand/fingers, realised there was a potential serious injury, and called you. They can't diagnose or take your child to hospital; they can only ask you to come in and do so. And you could have asked for an ambulance to be called if you had no way to transport your child to hospital yourself.

I really am sorry. It sounds like a terrible injury for your poor DC. And I hope he's getting the medical care he needs to sort it out and manage his pain in the meantime.

Same. And a copy is immediately emailed to parents.

I was coming on to say something like this but sounds like @Justloggedontocommentoncornwall is more knowledgeable - I used to be a school governor and I am sure it was the case that if the child had to have an ambulance or paramedic on scene, then the local authority had to be notified? And as result, schools always played it down, waited for the parent, and then the parent took them to hospital meaning the school was off the hook. My DD had a serious head injury in school, when I picked her up at home time as normal they said it was a bump, that's all. It was obvious she needed A&E. Because I drove her there, they then notified social services and tried to make out I'd hurt her on the way home.

But on MN, if a limb is still attached and the child is breathing, the school has done no wrong.

The original point was actually about vascular or neurological damage from a fracture, so a sprain is not relevant in this context.

If you’re desperate for a platform why not start your own thread?

It was an accident you picked him up took him to hospital and got sorted and that's it accidents happen in life you can't stop them.

So do your posts. But mine wasn’t and I don’t use AI.

I don’t need a platform, just correcting your misinformation.

So each school has an individual process. The OP wants assurance from her child’s school that they followed their own protocol and if they failed to, then they need to look into where the failure happened and sort it going forward. As a fellow parent I’d be grateful she wasn’t just chalking it up to a childhood scrape. She’s keeping my child safer if they went to that school.

OP. Firstly just sit with it for a day or two and focus on your son getting better.

Then request a meeting with the head teacher of whoever at school. Explain that you are very upset due to what has happened and ask them to take you through the incident, and their procedures.

Ask them to set out what happened from their point of view, what their policy is in that situation, how they followed it (or not) on the day, and what the outcome was. See whether you think there is anything that they fell down on. See whether there is anything else that you think they could have done. This may well be enough to help you come to terms with things. Genuine accidents do happen, and as many PPs have said, it is first aiders and other non-medics who are dealing with them. Your son was apparently conscious and upset but coherent, mobile, not heavily bleeding, and not significantly distressed with the pain, so they called you to deal with it.

If at that stage you still think that something is missing, then write to the Chair of Governors setting out your ongoing concerns.

And if you are still not happy then you may potentially want to get a personal injury lawyer involved, report the matter to the education authority, and / or consider changing schools. But none of those decisions should be taken lightly.

I had quite a significant head injury at primary school where I was taken by ambulance to hospital as I was conscious but completely incoherent. My DPs told me that if I had any lasting damage they would have had to sue the school. But as it was, I was fine, school learnt from what happened and everyone moved on.

Christ what an overreaction by you! Are you normally like this?

If someone is taken to hospital for treatment it needs to be reported to RIDDOR, the school will obviously know this, but you need to tell them the outcome.
I think you are talking rubbish. Why would the school want to play it down? The kid fell on the playground as loads of kids do every single day.

Surely they weren't on break at 2:45. How long had he been left like that? What had he done to cause such a major injury? I wouldn't be impressed at all and I'd also want a full report on what happened.

Accidents happen. I broke my arm at school, but no one tried to move it, and my parents were called immediately. But some of the details here don't add up.

You’re not though, you merely misinterpreted the original point and a couple of others and went round in circles. Enough’s enough.

Forearm Fractures in Children
The forearm is the part of the arm between the wrist and the elbow. It is made up of two bones: the radius and the ulna. Forearm fractures are common in childhood, accounting for more than 40% of all childhood fractures. About 3 out of 4 (75% of) forearm fractures in children occur at the wrist end of the radius.
Forearm fractures often occur when children are playing on the playground or participating in sports. If a child takes a tumble and falls onto an outstretched arm, there is a chance it may result in a forearm fracture. A child's bones heal more quickly than an adult's, so it is important to treat a fracture promptly—before healing begins—to avoid future problems.

So not so difficult after all….