1st day of our holiday in Florida our 6 year old girl broke her wrist

naomig

To cut a long story short, on our first day (yesterday) we had breakfast at animal kingdom lodge, spent a couple of hours at the pool then went to Epcot. Bought 3 day tickets, went in an before even getting on the first ride my 6 year old girl tripped over and broke her wrist. Full day in hospital (two actually) we are having a complete nightmare. Her hand is in a temp cast and we need to go back for a proper one in a few days. So, now she is completely heartbroken that she is unable to do what she was mostly looking forward to and that is swimming and playing in the pool/sea. Does anyone have any suggestions of activities we can do as a family (2 adults, 4 yeAr old boy and our 6 year old girl) that are broken hand friendly? We have a surprise hot air balloon flight but not even sure if that will be ok as landing as can be a bit rough in even light winds.

We have a car and was planing on driving to key west and other places over the 14 day period.
By the way, even though we put down the nhs, I would take that any day over the service we received in celebration hospital in Florida. Epcot did not even offer to give us another free ticket even though they knew and saw how bad Ella was and how much pain she was in. One of the worst days spending over 12 hours with a 6 and 4 year old in hospital with no offer of drink, information or food. Seriously unbelievable. Really want to call it quits and go home but I am also determined to make the rest of our holiday fun to at least our children that were so looking forward to this holiday.

no.1swimmum

I am really sorry to hear that you Florida holiday has started this way and hope that your daughter is not in too much pain. I am really shocked at the lack of compassion by both Disney and the hospital as on the 3 occassions our boys have been hospitalised during holidays in Florida we have had exceptional service the only thing that wasn't nice was being asked to leave our sons room and pay x amount of $'s before we could remove him from the hospital - but one phone call to our insurance company sorted this out.

I am trying to rack my brains for things that you can do instead of swimming to help make your daughters holiday special - i am finding it difficult cos having boys all the princess things are obviously a no no. What about contacting disney to see if they have a cancellation at one of the 'bibbidi bobbidi boutiques' ( i would explain the situation and how no help was offered at the theme park - normally they are so good, and don't like negative feedback) - I believe there is one at the Magic Kingdom and one at down town disney - they will dress her up as a princess, clothes hair and makeup. Princess breakfast at Norway, Ecpcot or Magic Kingdom.

If I think of anything else I will re-post. I hope that this doesn't spoil the rest of your holiday though

naomig

Thanks for the advice, that will definitely bring a smile back to her face. Today she seems to have woken up with slightly less pain. A couple of people have mentioned that the hospital is now able to put a water proof cast on? I don't want to raise her hopes as no one mentioned this in the hospital. Does anyone know anything about that? I'll obviously ask when we are next there to put the proper cast on.

By the way, I am also really surprised by the treatment we received. I really expected much more. The second hospital was much better (Florida hospital south) but that was after we spent 8 hours just waiting in a room at Florida Celebration Hospital.

richardw

They may be referring to a splash proof cast to make showering and bathing easier, it may not be waterproof in the same sense as being able to be submerged and to swim.

You can get cast covers to go over the cast similar to http://www.protectacast.com/

ponymad_3

So sorry to hear about your problem... What help have you had from your insurance company, they should be able to interven re the care side of things for you. BTW you should be able to reverse charge the call.

Hope you don t mind but I have asked the question on the trip advisor forum for Florida and will post across for you... Hoping some of their destination specialists will come up trumps, hopefully quickly.

The balloon ride should be fine although it will depend on the company and wether they will be happy with the risk. When I was in Aus we just had to sign away our liability but the US may well be different.

HTH

netballdi

When we were in LA in August a young English boy in our hotel broke his arm whilst there, and he was give a waterproof cover type thing from the hospital. He was in the pool everyday in it with no problem. His mother has bought a spare one from the local Walmart from the pharmacy bit I think.

naomig

ponymad i really appreciate your help.

Will definitely buy the cover today so thanks for the heads up. The insurance company keeps promising call backs to us but we are yet to receive one. If we don't hear anything by tomorrow, I will name them on here but will give them one more chance to do the right thong and start showing some support.

prowla

I think the waterproof covers may not be totally waterproof.

melb

we used one of these when my son broke his arm before we went on holiday a few years back. ours was called Aquashield and worked brilliantly for our son who was in the pool or sea everyday. It worked on the same principle as an elastic band whereby it stretched to go on and then sprang back at the top of the arm to keep it secure. if the plastercast got slightly damp we just dried it with a hairdryer. I'm really sorry to hear about your daughter and hope you manage to get one of these plastic covers for her. Enjoy the rest of your holiday

ponymad_3

Hi Naomig - copied across from TA as above - in particular seems it is possible to get a waterdroof cast! Not just a cover




1. Are they def going to the keys?



Museums, shopping, nature parks, minigolf, boat trips, there are things to do that don't mean going in the water. but you can also go to a good pharmacy and get a waterproof cover that will allow some water activities is used properly.

2.



What city are they in now? Orlando? Are they wanting to go somewhere else for a few days? They could still go to the keys, she just want be able to do the water activities which is hard as the whole keys are surrounded by water. However as amanx said there is plenty to do there without going on the water.

Not sure why they didn't put a waterproof cast on her as they make those nowadays.

If you give me more info I will post for you or you could pick up the thread on the TA forum for Florida

ponymad_3

Further info for you




They should look at the Florida Keys & Key West forums. There are things like a boat trip to Pigeon Key located at the 7 mile bridge in Marathon, feeding the tarpon at Robbies in Islamorada. Also in Islamorada a couple of restaurants also feed the tarpon and the sharks. There are turtle & bird sanctuary's. In Key West they may want to take the Conch Train tour. The Rain Barrel in Islamorada has a giant lobster out front which we always stop and take our pictures with it. Largo Cargo is a tourist shop but has lots of kids stuff. We used to always start there on our way down when the kids were little.




Feed the tarpon at Robbies marina.



Party fishing on the reef for a few hours.



In Key west there are fun things to do for kiddies.

Thanks to Bornwithwheels and Amanx