A fable - or is it?

<


Many many years ago in happy foster land there was a happy fostering
family.

Happy foster family had a happy foster child well he was until this day.

This day he had quite a small fall in the playground in school and,
unknown to anyone he had low bone density which caused his leg to break.

Now school had proper fully qualified first aiders and because the fall
was small and child very well known for crying wolf, they decided to
send him home to happy foster carer one.
.
So home he came and he lay on the settee until happy foster carer two
came home from work.

Now happy foster carer two had once been a proper first aider who had
seen a lot of real injuries and when he had a look at this something did
not add up.

Thing was, the mechanism of injury ruled out a break but this was a
child in a lot of pain and soon the house was lit up by the blue lights
of a big white ambulance which rolled up outside.

The crew agreed with happy carer two that this could not possibly be a
break and nominations for Oscars for foster child were being discussed.

Of course on going to hospital it was found to everyone's utter amazement
that the leg was broken but no one at believed it until the X ray was
on the screen.

For the hospital though this changed everything.

Being brought in from a foster home meant the hospital
immediately decided this was a "non accidental injury" and the size of
the small fall was obviously deeply deeply suspicious. The fact that
they themselves had not believed there was a break before the X ray
proved the case. Since of course everyone knows foster carers routinely
hurt the children in their care and this was obviously a cover up..

When records were consulted it was found that this was not the first
time this child had broken his leg in suspicious circumstances and the
picture was complete.

Not so happy foster carer was well into the routine when, she asked
innocently, whether they had check WHERE he fell and injured his leg.
She also thought it might help if they checked a bit more into the
first break, particularly who it was he HADN'T been living with at the
time.....

But of course I digress, meanwhile back at the ranch investigations were
proceeding apace. Social services were on the plot and, there were
serious questions to be answered, how on earth had carer one missed
something as "obvious" as a broken leg. This was incompetence and
irresponsibility. Someone might have to pay there would be repercussions.

There was a fair amount more in this vein, carer two listened quietly
then asked how could carer one possibly know what a broken leg looked
like, had the agency trained her in first aid?

Pause.

Had she acted according to the training she had received.

Pause and silence.

Was anyone in the house qualified in first aid by the agency?

Pause

Was it not the case that happy carer two had been trained in emergency
aid (not first aid) some years previously but that qualification had
expired some little while since.

Was there in fact no one currently qualified in emergency aid resident
in the house. Was it not one of their policies to have a qualified
carer in every household?

The agency might have a problem then. Failure to ensure this might be
deemed incompetence and irresponsibility. Someone might have to pay,
there might be repercussions....

Note wisely that a child suffering was not part of the equation.

Errr uummm. This was not the conversation the social worker wanted at all.

Fortunately for the agency, Carer two and his daughters had recently
completed a community first aid course.

Wasn't the agency lucky?

Carer two was not sure the social worker sounded relieved or even happy.

But all turned out OK in the end, child made a full recovery and the
tests revealed a previously unknown underlying illness.

The agency learnt too and they made sure everyone of their happy carers
was properly trained in first aid.

Or did they....

R

__._,_.___