Third-grader's broken arm at recess spurs call for changes

PEABODY - The parents of a Center School student - whose fall at recess landed him 15 days in the hospital - want school officials to take measures ensuring no other child endures similar woes.

Third-grader Christopher LeClerc fell from a slide May 31 and broke his left arm so severely that the upper arm bone pushed against his skin, cutting off blood supply to the rest of the arm, his mother, Leandra, wrote in a letter to Principal Madeline Roy and members of the School Committee.

"I'm like, 'Oh, my God,'" Leandra LeClerc said Monday. "You would have thought he would have been hit by a car."

According to the letter, the boy was found by the lunch monitor, who escorted him to the office of the school nurse, Priscilla Raposo, where he was given an ice pack, but no sling, for his arm. Sometime after that, the school called LeClerc and she arrived within 10 minutes of the call, LeClerc said Monday.

When she tried to put her son in the car, he was unable to lift his arm without screaming, and she realized an ambulance was needed.

In her two-page letter dated July 30, Leandra LeClerc explained her son could have lost his arm and added that her son still hasn't recovered the full use of it.

The day of the accident, Christopher required orthopedic surgery in which three pins were placed to keep his bone in place. Doctors later learned the child had also bruised his liver and contracted a staph infection. He still has a blood clot, LeClerc wrote.

"This was pretty severe," she said. "It was just one thing after another."

Leandra and her husband, Christopher, are "asking and expecting" major changes, she said. The parents want four steps taken:

* not moving a child until a nurse can evaluate the victim;

* calling an ambulance and parents if a child is seriously injured;

* offering additional training to nursing staff; and

* creating a safety committee.

The couple wanted something positive to come of all this, she said.

"Awareness isn't always a bad thing," said Leandra LeClerc, an X-ray technician. "It's going to make things better for everyone."

Aside from vaccination shots, her child has been healthy, but he's become anxious from all the medical issues, she said. Christopher has finally taken a break from hospital visits before starting up physical therapy in mid-September, Leandra LeClerc said.

Full article: http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_234094044