beyond pissed

[Jason1212]

The wife calls me at ten till five telling me she is taking my daughter Emma to an urgent care center to get her arm looked at. Apparently she fell at her end of school year skate party around noon and hurt her arm. My wife doesn’t get off work till five so asked if the school nurse had called her to come early. She tells me no the nurse looked at it and sent Emma back to class. The wife just happened to leave work early to do some other things and was now having to deal with this. Long story I know but here is why I am pissed. My wife just called to let me know Emma's arm is actually broken. Now in addition to getting an appointment set up with an orthopedic specialist to have her arm set properly I am going to the school tomorrow to have a little chit chat with the principle. I know school nurses are not the most highly trained or paid people on the planet and I don't expect John Hopkins level medical service from her either. But she could have at least called us 4 hours ago when this came to her attention so we could have made a decision on what to do.

[Joe_Steeler]

Fuck!!! that girl had a broken arm that freaking long and just sat there!!!!
What kind of nincompoops are running that school?

Dude I am sure there are two thousand people in here that have broken bones and it fucking hurts after 30 minutes or so when your body adrenaline is wasted.
Four hours!!!????
ahhhh!!!

Take care of her, hope she heals well. Control your temper tomorrow, but if I was you I would remove the principal's head and shit down her throat. But that's just me...
I can't believe this shit.

[ABSOLUT CHARVEL]

where my kids went to grade school, they often had people just donate their time as a nurse. head injurys they would call us and/or send the kid home with a wrist band to CYA and to keep an eye out on them. Skate parties are classic for kids getting hurt, never fails. anyways, they should have called as a FYI even if they were not sure of degree of the injury and let the parents make the call the get the kid. just for the reason alone the nurse on duty is not expert.

[Jason1212]

The kid's a trooper. I figured if it were broke she would be howling. She ran her bike into a bush a year ago and I thought she would never shut up. The doctor only did an xray just to clear things. She was cool as a cucumber when she went in and based on that he thought no way it is broken.

[Ben...]

Wow, that is absolutely ridiculous. If that principal isn't crying by the time you are done with them you weren't yelling loud enough!

Just kiddin'. Make sure you get your point across though. They should have contacted you ASAP.

[CharvelRocker]

Once you break something (smashed my wrist up when my legs let out and being a dumbass and not thinking back to wrestling in PE, put my hand out to brace my fall) it really hurts, but after that it takes a lot to get you curled up in pain. Since then I sliced up my finger pretty bad in a car door and it didn't bother me much at all after getting over the surprise. I'm amazed though she went four hours. As for the nurse, I would howling to get her fired. In my old school district, the nurses ALWAYS ruled on the safe side with things, partially out of fear for their jobs and for retribution in the form of lawsuits.

[OnlineStageGear]

wow that's pretty f-ed up. My school nurse would send you home if your tummy hurt. That sux to have a broken arm right before summer. Not that it's cool to have one during winter or anything.

Matt

[Bri]

Yes you should have been called right away. Before you really rip the nurse a new one, I have a story. I broke my thumb inline skating July 4, 1992. I have a lot of injury experience being a former BMX freestyler so I wrapped it really good and went to work. I pushed industrial vacuums (100-200lbs) and a huge carpet cleaner for 2 days. My thumb was getting worse even though I babied it. I went to the ER on the third day and got X-rays. I was about to be sent home with nothing but orders for more ice when the ER doc ran into the hand specialist and showed him the films. I got sent home with orders to return at 7AM for surgery. I ended up with two 3" pins in my thumb for six weeks. It was two painful to play guitar until last fall and I'm sure my six hour playing sessions are behind me forever. So if a big city ER DR. almost made the same mistake...

[Razor]

The kid's a trooper. I figured if it were broke she would be howling. She ran her bike into a bush a year ago and I thought she would never shut up. The doctor only did an xray just to clear things. She was cool as a cucumber when she went in and based on that he thought no way it is broken.

Let's think about this out logically. The nurse looks at the kid. She's being a trooper, even the doctor can't believe it's broken based on how the child is acting. Is there bruising on her arm where the break is?

If the nurse looked at it, and in good faith didn't think it was a major injury then why scream for a firing. Fire the nurse??? Come on. Furthermore, you can bet the principal was initially consulted...let's fire the principal too.
Now, I won't disagree that a parent should have been called, that way the decision is now being made by the parent.

[Axewielder]

Even a doctor will probably employ an X-ray machine to diagnose a closed fracture. I can see where an injury like that might go undetected for a time if the conditions were right.

[Mrs Tekky]

Something along those lines happened to my little brother in high school. As part of PE, the school decided it would be great to do in-line skating in the gym - keep in mind we went to a small school in the country - like 450 students total - most of the kids had never roller skated let alone in-line skated.

A number of kids fell - of course. My brother tried the whole put the hand down as he fell. Felt major pain in his wrist. Told the PE teacher. We didn't have a school nurse so the teacher looked at it, had him move it and said that it was fine, maybe sprained it. But said he could call my mom if he really wanted to. So thankfully he was bright enough to do just that. Mom took him directly to the ER where they did xrays. He unfortunately got one of the lower level residents who decided he was fully capable of reading the xray on his own - decided it wasn't broken by was definitely severly sprained. So Jason got a brace and told to take the brace off every few hours and do some exercises with it to keep everything flexible.

So mom takes him home, does what the doctor says. They get a frantic call later that day from the nurse at the ER - Don't let him move that wrist! Both arm bones are broken clear through and they might not be aligned appropriately. We have an appointment scheduled for first thing in the morning with the orthopedic surgeon. Thankfully they were able to get the bones aligned without surgery.

What we found out is that the schools are supposed to contact the parents when any potentially significant injury occurs (at least in Illinois) - the problem is how each school identifies that.

[GodOfRhythm]

The kid's a trooper. I figured if it were broke she would be howling. She ran her bike into a bush a year ago and I thought she would never shut up. The doctor only did an xray just to clear things. She was cool as a cucumber when she went in and based on that he thought no way it is broken.

That is one awesome kid!!! Give her my best wishes, she'll be playing again in no time!


The nurse needs a FIRM slap on the wrist for sure. I wonder if the school is liable, I don't know how it works in the States.

[Spivonious]

The doctor only did an xray just to clear things. She was cool as a cucumber when she went in and based on that he thought no way it is broken.

So the doc agreed with the nurse but did an x-ray to make sure (something the nurse couldn't do). If I were the nurse, would I have called the parents? Probably not. The kid falls, her arm hurts, I check it out and it doesn't look broken. No way I'm bothering the parents with "she fell and has a bruise".

[shreddermon]

Let's think about this out logically. The nurse looks at the kid. She's being a trooper, even the doctor can't believe it's broken based on how the child is acting. Is there bruising on her arm where the break is?

If the nurse looked at it, and in good faith didn't think it was a major injury then why scream for a firing. Fire the nurse??? Come on. Furthermore, you can bet the principal was initially consulted...let's fire the principal too.
Now, I won't disagree that a parent should have been called, that way the decision is now being made by the parent.

Even a doctor will probably employ an X-ray machine to diagnose a closed fracture. I can see where an injury like that might go undetected for a time if the conditions were right.

+1. And I've personally experienced this with my daughter, who was only 2 & 1/2 at the time. She took a bad fall on the playground at daycare. The teachers gave her hugs, put ice on it, asked if it hurt. My daughter was a trooper, and went right back on the playground. So we weren't notified until picking her up at normal time that afternoon.

She went several days with only an occassional - maybe once a day - complaint that her arm hurt. No sign of a break or pain with movement. We thought it was just a bad bruse. After those few days, her complaints of pain got worse, so we took her to the doc. Even with X-rays, the doc couldn't be sure if it was broken or not. (I guess it's harder to tell for sure when they're that young.) Said it might've been a soft tissue bruse to the muscle, or maybe a slight break. He put her in a sling for a couple of weeks just to be safe.

Given what you posted, the nurse's actions seemed reasonable. Certainly nothing in the realm of firing or whatever. However, I would make a complaint to the principal about not getting a call about the incident. If your kid goes to the nurse's office, a parent should be notified. If anything, it seems like that was the nurse's only bad step here.

[lerxstcat]

This should definitely be brought to the school's attention, and gauge their response in deciding what you do. If they're apologetic about it, given that the doctor himself needed an x-ray to confirm a break, maybe go easy on them.

But if they cop an attitude or go into CYA mode, then I'd file a claim and then a lawsuit against them to make the point. Your child should never have had to suffer in class for 4 hours with such an injury; they should have erred on the side of caution and called you right away.