Nursery only finds child's severed finger when cleaning the floor

When a father picked his daughter up from nursery after a minor 'nick', he discovered that the cleaners had found the top of his 9 month daughters finger on the floor.

Pavel Dedek, 37, turned up at the private £900-a-month crèche to discover his daughter Sophie, who is just nine months old, with her hand wrapped in a blood-soaked towel and part of her finger in a cup of ice. Staff allegedly failed to realise she had lost 1cm of her fingertip until someone spotted it on the floor while they were cleaning, according to The Daily Mail.

An ambulance was not on its' way so he rushed her to A&E himself, where despite a two-and-a-half hour operation surgeons could not reattach the top of her digit which had been cut at the second joint. Her father was called in to collect her, it is reported, and four minutes later as staff cleaned the floor they found the piece of severed finger. The nursery manager is said to have called 999 before the discovery and been told an ambulance was not necessary.

The couple are planning to sue so that Sophie can have plastic surgery on the finger when she is 18. She is likely to find some tasks including playing instruments more difficult.

The telegraph
Daily Mail

As terrible as this was, why was a 9 month old child in a kinder-garden?

I know that many mothers are forced to work these days to make ends meet, and I understand that, but doesn't a 9 month old baby need its mother at that age?

What is wrong with society when a mother is either forced or chooses to leave a 9 month old child with a nursery?

That can't be good for the child.

I wouldn't leave my baby

Its unbelievable that whoever looked at her bleeding finger never noticed the top portion was missing. " down to the second joint" .
She must have been screaming in agony. Poor girl

What objects did that 9 month old baby have access to which could cause that amount of harm?

Why do you blame society for a mother having to work?

Society didn't force her to go out and get pregnant before she could afford to take time off of her job to raise it did they?

The parents were immature for sending a 9 month old to kindergarten.

And what on earth were the kindergarten officials doing?

They deserve to get punished.

reply to post by Sozen94

The teeth in her own mouth?

Kids can and will shock us parents with new and inventive ways of injuring themselves. I had to rally kids to find a missing front tooth that one of my sons knocked out when he fell face first at restaurant playground. Kids manage to hurt themselves in such novel ways at times.

I hope the parents in this story recover as quickly as their child will.

reply to post by inj3ct0r


I'm sorry, what? In the UK, you only get 6 months paid Maternity and only 2 weeks paid paternity. I had my daughter at a childminders from 6 months and a nursery from 12 months. It is highly judgemental of you to say that about parents. It's all very well if you have a parent who earns that much that the other can stay at home, but many people do not.

As for the OP, a sad story and one that is far too common. That said, the second joint of the finger on a 9 month old is a tiny tip of flesh which would be hard to see either on the floor or that it was missing.

The nursery did what it was supposed to do and called 999 as well as the parents and it is true, they will not usually send out an ambulance for what is essentially a minor wound. I had to get myself to hospital when I broke my arm, I called 999 and they said as I could still make it under my own steam, I am "walking wounded" and didn't necessitate an ambulance (I had left it 24hrs from breaking my arm to calling them..which didn't help with trying to convince them to send an ambulance)

A child can lose the tip of their finger very easily too, the joints are not fully formed, neither are the bones. Children were losing finger tips in buggies a few years ago from a simple plastic catch which would only cause a nasty nip on an adult.

reply to post by stumason

I'm sorry, what? In the UK, you only get 6 months paid Maternity and only 2 weeks paid paternity. I had my daughter at a childminders from 6 months and a nursery from 12 months. It is highly judgemental of you to say that about parents. It's all very well if you have a parent who earns that much that the other can stay at home, but many people do not.

As your child turns age three or so you might begin wondering at what point he/she enters Kindergarten. The answer is generally that children enter kindergarten at or around age 5. This means that if your child is four and will turn five within a certain period of time then he/she will be allowed to enter kindergarten. But, if he/she turns five after the specified date then your child will not begin kindergarten until the following year. Most states have very similar protocol, but may differ somewhat. So, as soon as your child turns four you need to begin looking into when your child is old enough to start kindergarten.

link

Originally posted by Spookycolt
Why do you blame society for a mother having to work?

Society didn't force her to go out and get pregnant before she could afford to take time off of her job to raise it did they?

Not enough kids means not enough people working when you are old to pay your pension.

reply to post by Sozen94

It is believed that nurse did not notice that she had crawled up behind her when she opened a door to put something in a bin and turned back to see Sophie crying.

www.guardian.co.uk...

gotta say that must be one heck of a door to sever a finger when OPENING. as this story seems to say happened. and this facility PASSED standards? must be rather crappy standards that are in place there. seriously i recently helped a person when they sold a daycare, there was a few problems found when inspected that needed to be delt with. one is the sandbox SAND was not being properly cleaned (WTF :lol, so bye bye went the sandbox. then there was apparently a "prickle" in the lawn that was a "hazard" lol, and needed to be delt with. just a wee bit over protective in my opinion. yet where this was had a DOOR that was able to sever a finger, talk about a major difference in standards in place for daycare.

i am not surprised to find a child that young in a daycare sadly. anymore a mother (or father) CAN'T AFFORD to take longer time off than maternity benefits will pay for. it is hard enough for ONE PERSON to survive on ONE PAYCHEQUE, forget a family of at least THREE PEOPLE. especially when one is a baby in this day in age of all the expensive crap one needs for a "safe, properly taken care of" baby. i got a kick at my last job that among things locked up due to expense/theft is baby formula that mothers are told they really should have to insure a babies heath and mental wellness, as it is an extreme HIGH THEFT product, not to mention expensive. then there are diapers, disinfectant wipes, strollers, car seats that cost an arm and a leg, etc, to buy as well.

i have many friends who work in daycare in both Canada and the US. it seems that the reality for most infants and children is being brought up by institutions like day care, school and before/after school programs, not by the parents. a typical day for many of these kids is dropped off between 6 and 7 am, before they are even really awake. to be picked up by parents sometime after 5 or 6 pm. for some the times are even earlier in the morning and later at night for those who have longer commutes for work (especially those who carpool). so basically a parent gets the kid out of bed and dressed, drops them off and then picks them up with time for barely supper than bed.

hard to blame the parent for not being there when they have to earn money to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. the fault for children being raised like this is between governments who have not set up a proper minimum wage so that people can afford to live and the GREED of big business for not paying employees enough. because of this parents have no choice but to trust that the child care workers/facilities will keep their children safe. these parents SHOULD win a BIG settlement both due to the necessity of surgery later and life as well as for the abuse the child is likely to suffer from her peers due to the lack of part of her finger. i am almost of the opinion that the worker and DAY CARE provider should ALSO face criminal child negligence/endangerment charges for allowing this to occur. as any parent knows you can't turn your back on young overly curious and adventurous infants, without the strong possibility of a problem. i guess one question is is this the fault of a CARELESS employee or a case of poor training and even poorer government standards?

Originally posted by Spookycolt
Why do you blame society for a mother having to work?

Society didn't force her to go out and get pregnant before she could afford to take time off of her job to raise it did they?

If everyone had your attitude there would only be children in rich elite families, who incidentally often put their children into all sorts of establishments for looking after at various ages even though they have the luxury of being able to do it themselves without loss of quality of life due to financial reduction.

These parents, who wanted children, a natural desire, probably do not have the choice and find they need to have both adults out to work to keep a roof over their head (whether they have kids or not). It is a sad state of affairs that push people to have to give up the joy of bringing up their kids and having to farm them out to someone else who do not have the same invested interest in their safety and well being as a parent would (bad parents aside of course).

Perhaps the woman only works part time to get a little more money in to pay the bills and so her child is not in care all day every day during the week but only a few hours.

Whatever the circumstances, an establishment who is responsible (and is PAID a handsome sum) to look after a child and fails to do so to the extent that the child lost the tip of her finger (we are not talking a scraped knee here) is appalling and they do indeed need to be sued and held to task. At a minimum their safety check needs to be under a microscope by the authorities (who usually very strict about this sort of thing in order to obtain a license) and their emergency procedures also need re-written as they should have done more than they did, and maybe could have saved the finger had they been on the case properly.
In a public school where you are not paying a private fee, if a child is hurt, a report must be written up and the parents informed. There are also first aiders there for initial attention.

reply to post by inj3ct0r


What has any of that got to with the price of fish?

Nothing..

All your website is doing is stating when the legal age of joining Kindergarten is in the US. Kindergarten in the US is akin to our "reception" classes in Primary school, which begin at the same age (4 or 5 years old depending on when the child's birthday is)

Your link says nothing about putting a child in nursery or a childminders, which is pre-school day care for you Yanks.

You have not at all justified your judgemental and, quite frankly, offensive post.

Call me an old fudddy duddy, but I think that the cost of living needs to come down so that one person working a full time job CAN afford to take care of a family of 3 so that mom can stay home and raise the child. There is something wrong here that one or both parents must work several jobs in order to pay their way in the world. I think this is intentionally engineered. I think wages need to come up a bit and the cost of rent, gas, insurance, and other incidentals needs to come down to make life affordable again.

My thoughts go out to the youngster and her parents.

reply to post by CthulhuMythos


Of course the establishment is wrong and needs to be sued, that isn't in question. I was responding to one part of a post who claimed that society has a responsibility to take care of children who are born to parents that can't do it themselves.

Sorry if you can't afford to take care of your kid, lifes tough and unfair, deal with it. You will have to work more or use daycare or what have you. Just because some kids are born to rich families does not mean society owes every child those same opportunities.

That, of course, is no excuse for what this child care facility did however. Two separate issues.

Originally posted by groingrinder
Call me an old fudddy duddy, but I think that the cost of living needs to come down so that one person working a full time job CAN afford to take care of a family of 3 so that mom can stay home and raise the child. There is something wrong here that one or both parents must work several jobs in order to pay their way in the world. I think this is intentionally engineered. I think wages need to come up a bit and the cost of rent, gas, insurance, and other incidentals needs to come down to make life affordable again.

My thoughts go out to the youngster and her parents.

Right on there bud. It is not fuddy duddy at all it is how it SHOULD be. Kids need a parent at home. When I had my kids I gave up my business/career and became a stay-at-home mum, which was not the norm anymore. Yes money was a struggle and yes I lost my career and all that I had studied for, but I gained kids that could read before going to nursery (pre-school year so around age 3-4), could count and knew their shapes. We did stories and all sorts and when they came home from school (when they got to that stage) they had someone to tell how their day had gone.
I know of one lad (a friend of my son) who is in his mid teens and he as rather well off parents, who have to work long hours. He once said he would give up all his fancy high tech toys just to be able to have more time with his parents. This actually brought tears to my son's eyes and he realised that our life on the poverty line was actually not so bad after all.

It should not have to be like this, minimum wage should mean a wage that is enough to actually survive on. As parents with a stay-at-home mum we don't even get to have our tax allowance transferred to our partners to help with the finances. We have less and less choice and more and more kids who don't manage to bond so well with their parents as the result. Now with this situation we have parents forever wracked with guilt over their child's accident, along with anger at the nursery. There will also be mucho guilt on the part of the staff and fear of losing their jobs/having to shell out a lot in compensation.

This existence is getting worse rather than better, and it seems to be being guided that way too.

reply to post by CthulhuMythos


Sorry but you raise minimum wage to 15 or 20 bucks an hour and companies will simply raise their prices.

Why should I have to pay 5 dollars for a cheesburger just to allow someone to have a kid?

Originally posted by Spookycolt
reply to post by CthulhuMythos

 

I was responding to one part of a post who claimed that society has a responsibility to take care of children who are born to parents that can't do it themselves.

Sorry if you can't afford to take care of your kid, lifes tough and unfair, deal with it.

In a real society we would be taking care of the children as a whole, that is what is wrong today. Communities used to do that sort of thing, where groups of people would help others out and it was not done for profit either, it was done for the well being of society /group as a whole.

Yes life is tough and unfair and I did (and still do) deal with it and chose to have less lifestyle, give up my career to do what I felt was right for my kids. So, I don't get to go to the hairdresser, so I don't have more than a couple of pairs of shoes, so I don't go out socialising, so my jumpers are 6 years old and a bit balled up on the surface, but my kids and I are a nice wee unit, even though we are on our own now, though they do still see their dad at weekends and they are well behaved.

I do feel sad for parents who feel they have no choice as they miss out on so much of the fun stuff with their kids too which I am sure they really want to take part in.

Originally posted by inj3ct0r
The parents were immature for sending a 9 month old to kindergarten.

And what on earth were the kindergarten officials doing?

They deserve to get punished.

It's not "kindergarten" its nursery. Pre-school child care and it's the norm if you want to go out to work. As a poster above said you only get 6 months paid maternity here. You can take as long as you want but after 6 months you drop onto statutory maternity from the government which is around £460 per month. You get this only up until 9 months then your on your own.

My Wife took 9 months off but as soon as she went back to work our son was in nursery three times a week from 8 months old. If you want to keep your job its what you need to do. My wife even dropped to part-time but we still needed the nursery as I have a killer shift pattern and am hardly at home when i'm working if you know what I mean...

Sounds to me like a tragic accident, of course the nursery staff could have been more vigilant but they did find the finger. It shouldn't have happened but it seems the nursery mostly did all they could?

reply to post by Spookycolt


That's the thing, you don't.

Yet wages are falling in relation to the actual cost of living.

On the flip side, you shouldn't judge parents who put their kids into daycare either. You can't have it both ways.

Originally posted by Spookycolt
reply to post by CthulhuMythos

 

Sorry but you raise minimum wage to 15 or 20 bucks an hour and companies will simply raise their prices.

Why should I have to pay 5 dollars for a cheesburger just to allow someone to have a kid?

Don't be stupid, you're wages would be going up in the scale of things too, so you would be able to afford the cheeseburger. In fact, instead of eating crappy cheeseburgers why not make something yourself. Minimum wage is not about you paying for someone else to have a kid, it is about basic living standards for people with or without kids. Everyone's standard of living should be going up and mega corporations who bleed us all dry to make mega profit for their share holders (especially on things that are basic to life, e.g. heating/lighting etc) and are directly responsible for lowering everyone's standard of living due to charging them a fortune should be capped by the government or better still, not be allowed to be private companies where the aim of the game is pure profiteering and to hell with the people.