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Family outraged over broken neck

Pete Bainbridge
6/12/2006

EXCLUSIVE

A MUM is outraged after claiming her daughter, who hurt herself during a lesson, walked around a school for 90 minutes after staff failed to recognise she had broken her neck.

Henbury High pupil, Bobby-Jane Evans, 14, felt a shooting pain down her spine last Wednesday while trampolining and asked for help.

But instead of calling for medical help, it's claimed she was told to sit out of class.

It wasn't until the girl - and later her granddad - persisted that finally an ambulance was called 90 minutes after the accident and she was rushed to Macclesfield Hospital where an x-ray revealed she had snapped a vertebra.

After a three-day stay and now wearing a neck-brace and on strong pain-killers, Bobby-Jane said: "I was bouncing and when I landed, my head flew back and I felt a crack in my neck.

"I got a shooting pain down my spine. I told my teacher.

"I went to the first aider at reception and she told me to go, get my bags and get changed."

Granddad, Paul Beard, 51, of Rutland Road, The Moss, who dashed round to the school when Bobby-Jane called him, said: "The school said they would bring her up to see me. But I have basic first aid training, and I know that you don't mobilise someone with a neck injury.

"And you don't send them off by themselves. I would very much like to see their policy on dealing with kids with neck injuries."

Mum, Sarah Evans, 34, a chef at The Rowens nursing home, who lives with husband, Robert, 36, a baker, and Bobby-Jane at Lime Avenue, The Moss, has complained to the school.

She said: "I heard nothing until Monday afternoon.

"They've messed with the wrong mum this time. There's a problem with duty of care here."

Headmaster Ged Ward, said: "I will be speaking with Mrs Evans privately about it and not through the pages of the local paper.

"If the allegations are correct I will apologise. If there has been any failure of duty of care on our part, I will be addressing that."