Anon Reasonable time to notify parents of injury?

[Anonymous Post]

Hello! Our gym program has had a lot of staffing rotation which has led to a lot of communication problems as the previous head coach's responsibilities have fallen to multiple people. Recently, our optionals gymnast was injured at the beginning of an all-day workout. This occurred early in the morning and I was not notified until over 7 hours later, at which point the injury was significantly downplayed. Once I saw her, It was obvious that we needed to rush to a clinic that night as it was a significant injury needing months of recovery. My husband suggested that she should have told us, but she is quite young (still in elementary school) and I feel the adults we've entrusted with her should be responsible for communicating to parents.

Obviously, we need to work some things out with or gym or move on. We are not in an area with a lot of great options for competitive gymnasts. I know that coaches can be somewhat "immune" to injuries (and the bench is getting pretty full at our gym at the moment), but what expectations do you, as a parent, have for when an injury occurs at the gym? Trying to make the best decisions here and would love some perspective from parents not involved with our program. Gymnastics parenting is no joke!

 

[Madden3]

I am sorry you went through this, and sorry your daughter sustained a serious injury!

I think any parent would want to be notified immediately if their child sustained a serious injury at practice that required medical attention. But it is often not that simple or obvious that the injury IS that serious. I myself once neglected my son's "shoulder ache" after an impact injury during a floor routine for a couple weeks until his coach suggested I take him to the doctor and it turned out he had indeed sustained a significant bone bruise injury that took months to heal. I am not a neglectful parent. I am a parent of athletes who knows that sometimes things hurt and the only thing that helps is ibuprofen and time. In that case, my son, who was around 11 or so at the time, did not complain much, so we did not "get it" until we had him assessed by the doctor and saw for ourselves how even every day movements like reaching for a glass on a shelf was causing significant pain.

When I was a kid in 4th grade or so, I broke my wrist during gym class running into a wall while playing dodge ball. I told my gym teacher and later, my classroom teacher that my "arm hurt." I cradled my arm for the rest of the day. But I was painfully shy, and did not communicate that I was in so much pain I felt nauseous. They told me I could stay in for recess, but for some reason I do not understand no one even sent me to the school nurse. The ride home being jostled on the school bus was excruciating. My mom was appalled. But I have no idea if she even contacted the school. It was a different era and parents rarely questioned teachers. This was at a very desirable school in one of the best school districts in the country. I am sure the teachers felt awful when I came in with a cast on the next day! My point is, even people who are otherwise competent and caring can make mistakes.

So when thinking about how upset I would be at the gym over this, I would want to know-was the injury after a stumble or fall, or rather something that just "started hurting" during practice? Was it an incident that might require emergency attention like a head or back injury? Or some body part that might typically start to hurt a bit at times in the gym and is usually not serious? After the injury or pain began, was the athlete sat out and allowed to decide for herself when to start working again? What did the athlete communicate to her coaches? Was she asked if she wanted to go home? Etc.

 

[Anonymous Post]

without knowing more about the injury, it is hard to know how I would feel in that position. If it was a head/neck injury or an acute injury that clearly needed to be looked at right away, yes I would want to be called. but there are many injuries that don't look or feel like they need urgent care initially and only after several hours or even days do you realize it in hindsight. When my dd was little, she landed a cartwheel wrong. No swelling, but a little tender. Coach had her finish practice as she wasn't complaining. Two days later, it became clear that it was something more serious than we thought. Turned out to be a wrist fracture.

 

[Anonymous Post]

I agree with the others that it really depends on the nature of the injury and/or how obvious it was that it was something more serious.

But yes, if you could take one look at it and realize immediately that she needed urgent treatment, then I agree you should have been notified when it happened or, at the least, when it became obvious that something was wrong. Waiting 7 hours and then downplaying it would upset me too.

My daughter has only had a few injuries at her gym that were "serious" and we were not notified within minutes. 2 broken ankles, a badly sprained ankle and a (most likely) broken nose. All 4 of those, it was quite obvious she was injured with immediate swelling, bruising and pain for the ankle and lots of blood and swelling for the nose. There really was no way she could have stayed at practice or it been downplayed for any of them.

 

[Anonymous Post]

While I understand that it's not always readily apparent what/how serious an injury is, a 7-hour delay would bother me a lot. Our gym's policy is a phone call if the gymnast can't return to practice after icing. Obviously something more serious would warrant an immediate phone call. Smaller incidents like falling off the bars and having the wind knocked out of you, for example, we would be informed at pick-up. My daughter is pretty tough (I have to drag info out of her if something is hurting), but I don't think she would withstand 7 hours without calling me if she's in pain! She's also in elementary school and doesn't have a phone of her own to call me from, but that's a long time to be in pain and not be in contact with a parent. Feels off to me. I hope your daughter isn't seriously injured and starts to feel better quickly!

 

[Anonymous Post]

My daughter has only had a few injuries at her gym that were "serious" and we were not notified within minutes.

Just reread this and realized I had a typo. I meant to say we WERE notified within minutes. Which is what I would expect for a serious injury.

 

[Aussie_coach]

It’s so dependent on the situation. Some kids will do everything they can to hide an injury from the coach as they don’t want to be sent home or miss out on doing things. As a coach you have to watch them closely for any signs after the injury.

Sometimes it feels okay at the time as the child is still full of adrenaline. I have had kids hurt themselves and feel 100% fine, no pain, so everything and the next day boom can’t use it! Sometimes a result of swelling kicking in, knocking it later, adrenaline wearing off etc.

If it appears mild, I’ll usually just text the parents to give them a heads up. That would be in a situation where the child seems okay to continue. Just in case it develops into something more.

If the child can’t continue because of pain or because the injury may make it worse or if there has been a hit to the head, we send the kids home.

If a possible badly broken bone, neck injury, head injury or possible dislocation. Anything where the child clearly needs immediate medical attention we call the ambulance first. Then once we are off the phone to the ambulance then we call the parents.

This would probably not be the same in the US. But in Australia ambulances are free and hospital treatment is free. Parents would expect us to call an ambulance and would be concerned if we didn’t call the ambulance.

Parents generally manage to arrive before the ambulance but if not a coach would go to the hospital with the child until the parents can get there.

 

[JBS]

If a possible badly broken bone, neck injury, head injury or possible dislocation. Anything where the child clearly needs immediate medical attention we call the ambulance first. Then once we are off the phone to the ambulance then we call the parents.

This would probably not be the same in the US. But in Australia ambulances are free and hospital treatment is free. Parents would expect us to call an ambulance and would be concerned if we didn’t call the ambulance.

Parents generally manage to arrive before the ambulance but if not a coach would go to the hospital with the child until the parents can get there.

This is the same for our club except for the free part. The ambulance and all medical treatment would be covered by the parents or their insurance.

For something such as a broken arm... if the parents get to the club in time... then they can refuse the ambulance ride and take their child to the hospital themselves.