The School Nurse Said He Was Fine — Both His Wrists Were Actually Broken. His Family Sued
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When someone gets hurt at school, the nurse should be the first line of care who takes all injuries very seriously. Unfortunately, they can often miss even obvious problems.
What would you do if you hurt your wrists in gym class, but the school nurse said that you were fine and sent you back to class?
That is what happened to the young man in this story, so he did, but after his mom took him to the doctor and found out that both wrists were severely broken, they sued the school and got the nurse fired.
It seems like the nurse didn’t even really look at his wrists, so this really was neglectful on her part, and she deserved to be fired. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.
You are fine go back to class
I was 14, maybe 2 months into high school, and in gym class.
These types of sprints are difficult, but they will get you in shape.
Teacher has us doing suicides (run forward to a point, Run backwards to the line, run forward to the next point, backwards to the line) when I tripped running backwards and threw my hands back to catch myself.
Since we were doing the suicides on the rubber cement track I feel instant pain and let put a cry.
Good thing the driver came along.
Teacher, without looking, says to go to the nurse while I sobbed in pain. I walk, by myself, up to the school doors and try to open the door and I can’t move my fingers.
Since I was sent back by myself I sit on the ground and sob some more. A Fedex driver pulled up, sees me, asks whats wrong and instantly went into panic. He opened every door from the front door to the nurse.
Wow, what kind of nurse would do this?
He explains how he found me and she asks what happened. After explaining she briefly looks at me and says “the bell is about to ring, you are fine go back to class” when I asked her to just call my mom she said no.
She opens the door, after me “faking” about not being able to move my fingers and I make my way back to gym.
He must have been miserable.
I decided, even though I had a phone and could have asked someone to call my mom, that if I was “fine” I would go back to class.
I managed to convince a friend of my cousins to take my binder and books to my next class, where I couldn’t take notes or participate because I was getting dizzy from pain and wanted to puke.
His cousin was there to help.
Had one of my friends take my books from that class to the next one, my second to last class of the day, and my cousin is in there.
She sees me silently sobbing trying to pay attention and asks what happened and once I explained she called my mom in the middle of class. Not even 15 minutes later my name is called from the speaker to go to the nurse. My cousin takes my stuff and puts it in my locker.
Oh, Mom was mad.
Once I get to my mom she EXPLODES when she sees my wrists, yes you read that right WRISTS, are twice the size and PURPLE. She is screaming asking why she wasn’t called and why I went back to class.
I turned to the nurse and said “she told me there was nothing wrong and that she wouldn’t call you and to go back to class.”
How could the nurse not have seen that there was a problem?
My mom LOST IT! she screamed at the nurse, who only said “I don’t have xray vision how would I have known?”, screamed at the principle and took me to an emergency doctor’s appointment.
Family doctor did xrays and said I would have to go to the specialist in the morning because it was so swollen it looked like multiple fractures in both wrists so he could not cast them – I had to endure another ride home and all night with Tylenol as my only pain meds and bags of veggies on my wrists throughout the night.
The school may have had to have the lawsuit so that insurance could be involved.
I go to the specialist who looked at both wrosts took more xrays and came in asking what color I wanted my casts since both wrists were broken and along the growth plate so MAYBE permanent weakness and/or pain for the rest of my life.
Mother was angry, sued the school – they refused to pay any expenses and said to sue them, demanded the nurse be fired -she was and when the school was going to make me retake gym the next year and “fail” this year she said there was no way was I being punished for their ineptitude.
They must have been careful going forward.
So, thats the story of how I made my school do what I wanted because of a stupid nurse and the refusal to call my mother.
The nurse had one job, and that was to at least take a look at the injury, but she couldn’t be bothered to do even that. She definitely deserved to be fired.
Check out what the people in the comments have to say about the story.
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School nurses have their nursing license.
Here is someone who went through something similar.
Even the FedEx driver knew there was a problem.
Head injuries should always be taken seriously.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who stops helping his neighbors out with his snowplow after they complain about his farm.
This person had the opposite experience.
The school nurse really dropped the ball on this, but she got what she deserved. Her whole job was to watch out for injuries like this, and she didn’t even take a close look.
Let’s just hope that the doctors were able to set the wrists properly and that this kid doesn’t have pain the rest of his life.
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