Accident at school

jpmummy

Hi

On Wednesday I got a call at work from my son's school to tell me that he had had an accident, had hurt his arm and needed to be collected as he may need medical attention - he is 5 years old and in reception class. I work 15 miles away and it took me a good 20 mins to get back to school where I found him in great distress, I put him in the car and took him 8 miles to A & E. Not only had my son broken his arm but the bones had moved slightly and he needed to have a 2 hour operation and have pins put in. My question is I am off to see the school on Monday and want to know am I right in thinking that they should have called for medical assistance? I think they should have owing to the distress he was in, it was clearly not a knock on his arm. Does anyone have any experience of this and if so did your schools call for help or just call you to collect them.

Thanks

bonty44

You will need to check the school's policy on this.

If you have seen it (which you should have done, because you should have been shown it when you took a place at the school) then you have essentially agreed to this, at least the school phoned you, they are not as medically trained as doctors/nurses so they won't necessarily have known he had broken his arm, etc. I presume your son needed an x-ray? And obviously they don't have facilities for that at school!

peachyprice

What would you have wanted them to do differently?

As it was a broken arm rather than a head injury for example, there was really no need for paramedics to attend, a broken arm is not a life threatening injury, and while I can understand that your little boy was distressed I can't see what any medical assistance would have done, other than perhaps whisk a frightened little boy off to hospital without his mum.

There isn't an overall policy for all schools to call for assistance, you'll need to see what your schools policy is, but to be fair I think they acted in an acceptable manner as his life was not a risk.

jpmummy

bonty44 wrote: »

You will need to check the school's policy on this.

If you have seen it (which you should have done, because you should have been shown it when you took a place at the school) then you have essentially agreed to this, at least the school phoned you, they are not as medically trained as doctors/nurses so they won't necessarily have known he had broken his arm, etc. I presume your son needed an x-ray? And obviously they don't have facilities for that at school!

I came on here to ask for advice. I find your reply quite upsetting and sarcastic. Needless to say I don't feel I need any further replies if that is the response I am going to get. Thanks

splishsplash

I hope your son is feeling a little more comfortable now - what a traumatic time for both of you!

I'm not sure what the school could have done without distressing your son further - a broken arm wouldn't ordinarily need an ambulance, and a teacher bringing him to A&E would probably have terrified him.

We sign consent forms in our school each year - allowing the school to call for medical assistance, but I would have thought this was only in the event of a major emergency - e.g. if a child was bleeding uncontrollably or knocked unconscious or had an open fracture.

I hope your little boy has a speedy recovery.

Glamazon

jpmummy wrote: »

I came on here to ask for advice. I find your reply quite upsetting and sarcastic. Needless to say I don't feel I need any further replies if that is the response I am going to get. Thanks

I don't think there is anything wrong with the post - you can't ask for advice and then moan when you get opinions. Trust me if u think that is bad it's nothing compared to the abuse I've had on some threads.

I don't think the school could have done much more than they did - I work in a GP surgery, if someone broke their arm on site we would have to tell them to attend A&E as we don't have the facilities to deal with it

Hope your little boy recovers quickly and has fun doodling on his cast!

jpmummy

peachyprice wrote: »

As it was a broken arm rather than a head injury for example, there was really no need for paramedics to attend, a broken arm is not a life threatening injury, and while I can understand that your little boy was distressed I can't see what any medical assistance would have done, other than perhaps whisk a frightened little boy off to hospital without his mum.

However it would have been quicker to take him there and me to meet him, bearing in mind this is a 5 year old he was in obvious pain!, his teacher called me the next day to say that she thought it broken. Whilst I appreciate that broken bones are not life threatening we are talking about a small child!

Glamazon

jpmummy wrote: »

However it would have been quicker to take him there and me to meet him, bearing in mind this is a 5 year old he was in obvious pain!, his teacher called me the next day to say that she thought it broken. Whilst I appreciate that broken bones are not life threatening we are talking about a small child!

So who would have looked after the rest of the children while the teacher drove to A&E and waited for you to arrive? With travelling and parking this could take a while.

twentypenceoff

peachyprice wrote: »

What would you have wanted them to do differently?

As it was a broken arm rather than a head injury for example, there was really no need for paramedics to attend, a broken arm is not a life threatening injury, and while I can understand that your little boy was distressed I can't see what any medical assistance would have done, other than perhaps whisk a frightened little boy off to hospital without his mum.

There isn't an overall policy for all schools to call for assistance, you'll need to see what your schools policy is, but to be fair I think they acted in an acceptable manner as his life was not a risk.

Im wondering if she didnt make clear what the problem was, maybe not that they didnt call for medical assistnace, but since she points out that it took her twenty minutes to get there, she was worried that he was without painkillers for that amount of time given the severity of the injury, whereas trained medics could have administered some in that time?And presumably the school would only have been able to administer child aspirin, and that only with the parents consent (im guessing here) which would not have helped?

jpmummy

to be fair it didn't stop them offering to drive me and him there when I arrived. So obviously that wouldn't have been deemed a problem.

peachyprice

jpmummy wrote: »

However it would have been quicker to take him there and me to meet him, bearing in mind this is a 5 year old he was in obvious pain!, his teacher called me the next day to say that she thought it broken. Whilst I appreciate that broken bones are not life threatening we are talking about a small child!

If you were at home and your son broke his arm, would you have called for an ambulance?

I understand it must have been awful for you especially as it was such a severe fracture, but would you really, honestly, wanted your son but through the experience of being taken to hospital without his mum there?