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"Missed my son's broken arm"

About: Lincoln County Hospital

My son hurt his arm whilst we were in Newark (we initially went to Newark minor injuries who said it was a pulled elbow and sent us home saying it would be better by the evening). The following day, his arm was even worse, swollen and he would not allow anyone to touch it. We took him to Lincoln A&E for him to be checked again. My first impression whilst waiting to be seen was that it looked really dirty, during the initial triage with the nurse, there was a wine gum under my seat, covered in hair- god only knows how long it had been there. We were sent for X-Rays and after telling one receptionist, two nurses, two doctors and a bone specialist what had caused the injury (all at separate times) we were informed that they couldn't see any breaks and that we should come back the following day to see a paediatrician. So we were basically sent home with my son still in pain, still not knowing what was wrong. We did come back the next day and this was when (looking at the same x rays as the previous evening) his broken arm was identified and he had a plaster cast fitted. It angers me that on two separate occasions, his broken arm was missed, especially at Lincoln A&E. The communication between the medical staff looking after my son was poor and at no point did I feel confident in their abilities to diagnose my sons injury. I appreciate that a break can sometimes be hard to spot, however, the following morning when a doctor told us it was broken, I raised the point that it couldn't be seen on the X-rays the previous evening by the other doctors - he said the break was clear to him. This was my first visit to Lincoln A&E and hopefully my last!

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