May 12, 2014

Question

I was told that my son was running the halls slipped and fell (on water), he banged his head causing the laceration. This was at 11:20 am the school did not call me nor called an ambulance sent him home at 3:00 holding his head with his own uniform shirt. His uniform shirt was very bloody far beyond a scratch witch they told to my son by the nurse. I took him to the ER where they cleaned it and used 6 staples to staple the laceration. This should warrant a call, ambulance and or a visit to my home I am directly across the street. They sent someone today to see if he was okay once they realized this was more serious then they thought. My son is ADD and has a IEP why is he roaming the halls during class time anyways where is security, teachers and staff?

Answer

As distressing as it is for the school nurse to keep him for 3 hours before sending him home, it doesn't look like a medical malpractice case, per se, but he could pursue a regular negligence action against the school for causing him to slip and fall, resulting in injury. There would be factual issues regarding whether there was a janitor mopping at the time, if any warning cones were placed on the floor, etc. (and if he was running, there could be contributory negligence on his part). But if it's a public school, you'll have to get to a lawyer's office quickly. He or she will have 90 days to investigate and file the claim. Try to get an incident report from the school if you can. As far as damages are concerned, if hurt pride and 6 staples were your son's only injuries, the case wouldn't be worth that much, in my opinion, so you may have to shop around for a lawyer to take the case. Good luck.


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