By Matt Tempesta
The Daily Item
SAUGUS — A Saugus couple is furious after they say staff at the Veterans Elementary School did not call 911 when their fourth-grade daughter severely broke her arm on the playground Tuesday.
Fire Lt. Tom Deon and his wife Jen said their daughter Ally was playing on the jungle gym when she fell and broke her arm. Jen Deon said she received a call from the school nurse and she rushed to the school.
“I walk into the nurse’s office and my daughter is screaming,” she said. “There are five women around her, you think her arm might be broken? Between her elbow and her wrist, it was hanging like a hammock. I didn’t even know which way was up. They told me, ‘You need to get her to a hospital right now.’ I had no idea what even happened.”
Jen Deon added, “No ambulance was called, no splint placed. Now I’m hopping in the car going to the hospital with a child with a severely deformed arm. I was in such a panic. I felt like I was having a stroke. It’s not until my husband, who is a fire lieutenant, looked and said, ‘Are you kidding me? They didn’t call an ambulance?’”
After taking her daughter to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, Jen Deon said Ally had to be transferred to Children’s Hospital in Boston where Ally went through “11 hours of her throwing up and crying and sedation.”
“The ER doctor told me, ‘Your daughter is in a lot of pain. This is a very bad break,’” Jen Deon said. “It was broken in two places and displaced. They couldn’t set it at Melrose and they had to send her to Children’s Hospital in Boston.”
Tom Deon said he asked principal Jean Perry why the school didn’t call 911, to which she cited school policy.
“I asked her why the nurse didn’t call and she said, ‘Well, I’m not a health care professional and I went by (the nurse’s) recommendation,’” he said. “They kind of dropped the ball on this one. What’s the utility of a nurse at a school if they can’t do anything and they can’t call 911?”
Tom Deon added, “The nurse is my child’s medical advocate when I’m not there and, as far as I’m concerned, she didn’t act in my child’s best interest medically.”
According to the district’s first-aid policy: “The school nurse or another trained person will be responsible for administering first aid. When the nature of an illness or an injury appears in any way serious, every effort will be made to contact the parent and/or family physician immediately.”
The policy goes on to state: “In extreme emergencies, the school nurse, school physician or principal may make arrangements for immediate hospitalization of injured or ill students, contacting parent or guardian in advance if at all possible.”
When it comes to first aid, Tom Deon said if there’s any doubt, call an ambulance.
But, while the Deons are upset about the school’s response to their daughter’s injury, Tom Deon said the playground where her daughter was hurt has been the cause of numerous injuries over the years and was only re-opened Monday.
“Kids are kids. They’re going to get hurt,” he said. “I don’t want to wrap my kids in bubble wrap. But it was a pretty serious injury and maybe they should take a look at this jungle gym. Maybe there are newer ones. Maybe the standards have changed.”
Calls to Perry were not returned Wednesday, while Superintendent Richard Langlois could not be reached.
In a letter to the Deons obtained by The Item, Perry stated, “During our conversation I told you that there was not a clear policy as to when an ambulance was called, but that it is case-by-case based on the expert opinion of the medical staff on scene.”
On Wednesday morning, Tom Deon said Ally was home resting and will probably miss a few days of school.
“We’re giving her Tylenol and she’s on the couch with her little arm propped up watching some TV,” he said. “Her teacher was great and called her up to make sure she was OK, and sent her work home to make sure she doesn’t fall behind.”
Republished with permission from the Daily Item