baby with broken femur

[julie280672]

my baby presented with a fractured femur due to an accident. this was missed twice by doctors due to no swelling or bruising. they constantly rotated her legs and stretched them out again to check her hips before fracture was dianosed. then they put a cast on on the bottom of her leg instead of the top. would all of these mistakes have made the fracture worse than it originally was.

[CHIN_C]

Just wanted to point out that fractures in pediatric patients can sometimes present differently than fractures in adult patients. Pediatric bones tend to be more soft and malleable. Rather than breaking into separate parts, the bones may only bend or buckle; these are known as buckle fractures.

[Ger57]

Hi Julie,
what an awful story. Your baby had no way of indicating where the pain was while they were searching at the wrong place.
However, I can imagine that without swelling it is sometimes not easy to find a fracture in a very young person.

There is no way of telling from here whether it made the fracture worse. I all depends on the fracture itself. When the fracture has sharp edges, it can easily damage surrounding tissue. When the bone parts are still connected (more a crack than a fracture) damage will not be done.

Are you sure that the femur was broken? that is the bone between hip and knee, so not in the bottom of the leg!

Anyway, I hope your baby recovers quickly, so you both can soon forget this accident.
Take care,
Ger

[julie280672]

Hi thanks for your reply. we dont blame the doctors who originally assessed our baby for rotating her legs and hips so much as there was no visible signs at all..which was strange..and yes, it was definately a fracture of the femur. We were told it was a significant injury but it healed completely within 10 days..no cast , no bandages. everyone couldnt believe it had healed. we were told if she could walk, she would be able to walk on it.!!. They admitted they had put the cast in the wrong place when they did it..and then put her in traction. she is absolutely fine now..but i do think all the messing about and the wrong cast couldve made it worse than it originally was. When seeing the xray, it was a small crack with a hairline fracture going down towards the knee.