Horrible day! Need reassuring!

Specialties School

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So today was one of the worst days ever in my 5 years as a school nurse. At noon, right when I have 7 meds to give, a student at recess was running and tripped and his tooth went thru his lip. It was very bloody and he was freaking out. There was about a 1/4 inch hole and he needed stitches for sure, plus he has a broken tooth. Mom came ,( he lives across the street from school) and took him to urgent care.

That was not the problem! The problem was during this time a K student (5 yr old) felt "hot" and the staff wanted to call his parents to pick him up. The principal had made an announcement that my office was "currently closed" (all the kids were coming for meds and the child with the lip injury was still screaming and would not calm down while waiting for his parent). K staff said that principal told them not to call " and wait 5 mins, nurse will be open" and to bring him up. So my office is finally clear of lip kid, ( after 30 mins) and this boy comes and has a fever of 103.8!!!!! I call his parents immediately and tell them to come right now and get him, that he was sick and needed a doctor.They do not speak English, but said "yes on way". He was A+ O the entire time, I gave him a cool cloth and he was lying down resting until dad came. I keep checking in on him every few minutes and he was 103.2-103.6. he fell asleep. I had JUST checked on him again, he was the same, when his dad walks and I bring him over to where he is laying and he is having a seizure!!!

The father flips out and screams " what you do to my boy!". I ask if he has ever had a seizure or any medical issues, he says no. He picks the kid up off the bed and goes running into the main office with him, meanwhile I walkie talkies to call 911 .

Keep him safe on side, etc...

He was breathing the entire time and had a good HR and he was semi alert, he knew dad was there. Ambulance arrived and takes him to hospital. I am waiting to hear what happened.

But now, principal gets mad at me because I did not give him Tylenol!!! Really in the 29 mins he was in my office, I tried to get him to have a sip of water, he didn't want any. Plus I am not forcing a 5 year to have a med when the parents were on the way. I think that if principal had let the K staff bring him to me, or let them call home , he would have been seen by me almost an hour sooner and possibly could have not seized!

I am so upset, I am still shaking. I feel I did everything right, would you have done anything different? I pray this boy is ok, I am positive it was afebrile seizure, I know , can't diagnose, but I bet my life on it.

Thanks for listening. I am just upset and waiting for the fall out tomorrow. I know this is long! Thanks for reading my mess.

Glad things worked out for you. I'm sure you know this already but even if you HAD given Tylenol, liked everyone else said it wouldn't have prevented the seizure most likely. While it might have looked better to the principal if you could say you'd given him something, honestly po Tylenol likely wouldn't even have changed his temp in that time period.

Let's go to the extreme and say you had called 911 for him after one look. EMS certainly doesn't give Tylenol or even check temps ever; they may not have medicated for the seizure if it resolved fairly quickly. While this child would get Motrin or Tylenol once triaged in the ED he easily could have waited much longer and seized in their waiting room if taken in earlier by car. I don't think anyone can hold you to a higher standard than those folks who have way more resources!

We all will have bad days. As long as you did your part as the Nurse and documented everything that occured, that should cover you when things are taken into deeper situations. Sending positivity your way!!!

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