Morning ,
So I've just spent the last four days in the hospital with my daughters asthma ,my query is she asked for her ventolin while at school she had two puff and was then sent back to class , she has an asthma management plan which the school gets an updated version of every year .
I wasn't called and her asthma plan wasn't started .
I've moved pasted the blinding rage I felt at their incompetence ,but need to know how to deal with the school who had a duty of care but dropped the ball .
How can I get my point across without coming across as a frustrated / angry mum
**the doctors did state had her action plan been started we would have only needed 1 night not 3 in the hospital
**when I went to pick her up she was struggling to talk within minutes she was in and out of conscience with oxygen sat of 82
*thestaff had only just done asthma anaphylaxis training the week before
9 Replies
Ring the school and talk to the principal about what happened, and ask why the action plan wasn’t started
Be polite about it and you won’t come across as the angry mum
This is what I’d do too.
Salbutamol is only temporary relief, so it wouldn't have made any difference to the length of time she was in hospital sadly. Does she have preventative inhalers?
She is on daily preventers
That’s why the asthma management plan would have stated the next steps to take, and they didn’t follow the next steps.
My next steps are, inhaler and then start taking prednisolone and flixotide, immediately before I even see a doctor.
I’m assuming in this case the next steps were call mum immediately so she could action the rest of the plan.
The earlier you get onto it the better they recover, there's definitely a link there as well as not taking action being incredibly dangerous
How old is your daughter?
My son is 11 and I've started to make him responsible for his asthma, e.g. he knows his plan, he knows he needs 2 puffs, if that helps back to class, if not he knows what to ask for next and to tell office staff they need to call me etc.
Obviously of she's still little that's too big of an expectation but if she's upper primary age, she's old enough to start taking some personal responsibility for it.
I would speak with the principal (calmly, though I do understand your anger) because a lot of the time the office staff are the ones who tend to sick kids, and really they just aren't trained to know what to do.
Definitely inform them. Asthma is very misunderstood and neefs awareness brought to these issues. I think many teachers have no idea unless a child is turning blue and itsfar too late by then. Stress that needing ventolin is the start of an asthma plan, if that doesn't improve the child then action needs to be taken. It's crucial.
I once had a teacher on the phone tell me they didn't want to give her too much and they were trying to stretch it and she was fine while she was sitting still not moving, sleeping, and crying for mum. And it had been all day with no call. I told them to call an ambulance, they said it wasnt needed, i drove like a maniac and carried her straight to hospital where of course she needed a long stay. Furious didn't cover it so I do understand, people need education.
Get doctors letter explaining what their inaction meant and ask the school to provide copies if their records. Then put your concerns in writing. Arrange a meeting with all involved in decision making and treatment and ask them to outline what they would do differently if it were to happen again (basically follow the plan, but it's there something else missing?) if not satisfied, take everything you have done to the department of education.