To write, I normally have to have a clear mind. The last few days have been a struggle. I have been working on trying to minimise stress so that I'm okay with my own issues.
On Friday I took a brief telephone call from Claudia. I say brief because she said hello then she put her games teacher on who began to explain that Claudia had been hit in the mouth by someone’s elbow, whilst playing racket ball and had subsequently been left with a broken tooth.
I didn’t get much more than that, but when I went to pick Claudia up from the school, I couldn’t believe the extent of her injury. Luckily having phoned the Dentist earlier, we managed to secure an appointment for Claudia to have her tooth glued back on.
Today Claudia went back for an x-ray to check on the tooth, when we were told that the break in the tooth was close to the nerve and that in all probability she would lose the tooth. The tooth next to her front tooth had also been fractured, although not too badly.
The school has been less than helpful with the way they've handled the situation. Her sports teacher has been defensive and uncaring. Being hit in the mouth by an elbow never made much sense to me, because an elbow would surely have had a different impact and resultant injury.
When we spoke to Claudia, she confirmed it was the racket and not the elbow that hit her. The school has now agreed. In our letter to the school, we pointed out that had she been encouraged to wear a gum shield it, would have probably saved her getting injured, so we are now asking for the gum shield to be warn on all impact sports.
Schools are not obliged to ask anyone participating in sports to wear mouth-guards, but on the back of Claudia’s injuries we hope they will re-think that decision.
We can't help Claudia now, as far as her injury is concerned, but we can stop someone else walking away with a similar injury for the sake of a gum shield.
A mouth shield would definitely have helped and encouraging the school to do that was great. I hope things get better.
Thanks Lisa.
My daughter played rugby at the university and I bought her a very fine mouth guard because it was important, especially due to the fact that so much money had been invested in her smile with braces and all that.
After all that she refused to wear it because no one could understand her talk with the mouth piece in, so go figure.
We can try like hell as parents but eventually it's out of our hands. Luckily my daughter made it through 4 years without an injury, thank god.
You are completely right Brian, I just wish the school had been as sensible as you and insisted that mouth guards be worn in any sport that involves some form of physical contact.