Blimey

Poor girl

It's like something out of a horror film. What she must have gone through..

I saw an episode of Grey's Anatomy once where a character had jumped into a pit of concrete and they had to get it off him in a certain amount of time otherwise his internal organs start to shut down and it also caused quite severe burning.

Even though it was fictional, I was still surprised to realise that concrete could cause that type of damage, I always assumed it just crushed, not burned.

I certainly never knew that plaster of paris could cause such damage to the body and now wonder if, when putting a limb in plaster, that is why it is covered first.

Poor girl, imagine what fear and pain she must have felt, trying to get the plaster of paris off and not being able to, she must have been in agony.

I did not dream plater of paris would do that. Think the school got off very lightly, she should have got a lot more money than, future loss of earnings etc..

The payout was just a criminal liability thing....she will be getting more money when the schools insurers pay up for future losses etc...her soliciter was on Jeremy Vine's show earlier.

It's awful Poor kid.

We get a small, but regular, trickle of people coming through our department with burns from cement, sometimes quite severe. The problem is that one of the major constituents of cement is lime, which is caustic, and the chemical reaction while it's setting generates a lot of heat.

The poor girl, can't imagine the pain she went through, I hope she gets a good pay out in damages, not good enough in schools where you think your children are safe

Poor,poor girl.

Thanks Leccy for that. 
Eeh it takes a long time for all the legal malarky to sort, this has been 2 years I think already.

I'm not even sure if its true plaster anymore.   When I had my arm set I had a soft fluffy layer on first (though I do think this stuff is way itchier than it should be... considering how itchy it gets in there).... then they just moistened preprepared bandages... wrapping round & round....

then I got a colour choice for my top layer... I chose Red!

I still have my minging cast somewhere... I like to show it off with pride... but people are repelled by it

ooops... and yes... that poor girl!

Unbelievable that this took place in an art lesson of all places.... somewhere where you would assume they would be pushing the methods of making moulds n stuff!  

Still.... I am quite surprised at my daughters new school....  they are a bit slack in the H&S stuff..... in DT!   no overall requirement, no making her tie her hair back... no goggles....   and in sciences.   In her old school, if you didn't have your labcoat or overall... you didn't do the lesson.

According to this:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/t...ers-115875-21743947/
she plans to sue for £100,000. That's the very least she should be entitled to, IMO.

Yes plaster casts are a lot lighter these days.I broke my wrist about ten years ago and I got the big old heavy stuff,dripping cloths layered on in the plaster room.White plaster on the outside(good for artwork though). My goddaughter broke her arm last year and her plaster was bright pink material.

Yes... that was the drawback to my funky red cast..... really rough surface, not as easy to graffiti....

people managed though... is why I kept it...  it makes for a good read!

I broke my arm when I was 10, and my mum wouldn't let anyone write on my cast

Most simple fractures nowadays are splinted with resin-based casting material, which is lighter, doesn't get so hot when setting, and  comes in a range of colours.
It's not quite as strong, or as mouldable, though, so we still use plaster of Paris for more complicated splints.

And sometimes, we use both...

Are you a Plaster Room Technician then Sarum?

I always thought that looked like a cool job!

Nope...my official title is 'Operating Department Practitioner'.
A lot of the work in my theatre is plastic surgery and orthopaedics, and making up the splints and casts is part of what I do.

Outrageous!!!   That was the whole good bit about having a broken bone!    I always wanted a broken arm when I was a kid (doh!!!)....  was gutted when I fractured my wrist at 12 that all I got was a very uncool bit of flesh coloured foam strapping it to my neck! 

I have to say.... when I then broke my arm in my 30's  (completely snapped the radius & the ulna)... I realised it wasn't quite as much fun as I had thought it would be!

Yeah.... I've worked with the ODP's before!   I have a lot of respect for them...   I dread to think what would go on without them

What goes on with us is pretty dreadful, too...my lot are quite hard to keep under control

I totally relied on "your lot" Sarum..... when I worked for the Mod Squad on the Booked Admissions Project (yeah I know... crap project, but some good came out of it).

It was amazing the stuff "your lot" knew would drastically reduce waiting times & repeat surgeries.... but had been unable to say anything cos of the *whispers* consultant & their team!

My son did that when he was two...it was like he had another elbow where he shouldn;t have one...his arm went in a compete square....but at that age it was only 3 weeks plastered knuckle to shoulder

I just snapped one of those, and it made my arm go a funny shape before they set it
I was abolutely gutted that my mother insisted on me keeping my cast nice and persil-white. Annoying woman..

It was a long six months for me Croc.   I had the full arm plaster... then they decided to try out the forearm plaster... but I knew it wasn't working, cos as well as being in complete agony I could hear the bones moving against each other I could hear it from the inside!

5 months of fannying around and they finally decided to pin the bones.   They should have done it to start with really.  

Why is the school criminally liable?  Or indeed liable?  Because they didn't spot the girl had behaved like a numpty in the 10 minutes it took to set?

I wondered that too Dan...unfortunate though it was for the girl she had been told the correct way to make the clay mould then put the plaster in...she is at least partly responsible.

Ditty....My boys plaster could probably have come off after 2 weeks cos by that time he pretty much had full movement at the elbow where he'd been hitting the others with it!

I think it's the 'in loco parentis' thing. It's true she was partly responsible, but it doesn't sound she was properly warned beforehand about the risks.

I suppose the risk things is true.  It's just that she was clearly pissing about holding her hands in the plaster up to the wrists instead of making imprints as I imagine they were told to do.  It's unfortunate that the cost was so high for larking about but you can't cover everything kids might think of when they misbehave.

I heard about that months ago as I work in a school in the same Education Authority - all staff were sent it as a "lesson" to take H+S very seriously.
I do know however, that however many times you warn kids of the dangers of doing certain things and show them the correct way to do it, there are always some who want to try the "wrong" thing as a laugh.
I'm not saying that's what this girl did - but it DOES happen.

If she did, I bet she wouldn't have if they'd told her she could lose her fingers doing it, though.

According to her solicitor a lad in her art class had done similar thing the week before...he'd stuck just his fingers on one hand in a bucket.  So she'd misheard or misunderstood her teacher about the clay moulds.

I read about this in The Times this morning.   Everyone says how amazingly brave she has been.  She has since got 3 A levels and is going to university to become a teacher.

Oooh Moomin ... you must work in the same education authority as me.  

What a terrible thing to happen. That poor girl! We were talking about this in the staff room today as a colleague of mine worked at the school in question at the time it happened. The girl returned to the school after the incident, so her and her family can't have held any significant ill feeling towards the school.

This is every teachers worst nightmare! Imagine the guilt you must feel if anyone gets hurt in your care...let alone to this extreme.  It makes me not want to hand out the compasses tomorrow that's for sure.

hahahaha!   They stopped handing out compasses in my school .....  they were being used to do tattoos!!!

In fact they had a school wide ban on tippex (people were sniffing it), & compasses (being used to do tattoos)

Grange Hill had nothing on us

Oi you! You're supposed to calm me down not instill the fear of god into me.

Not to mention bunsen burners, eh Ditty?

All the oik kids in my school had bic biro and compass tatts...

Bizarrely enough.... we were still let loose with Bunsen burners!  My form room was in a science lab....   the gas taps were regularly opened and left open!