‘Like a horror movie’: Indiana mom says school didn’t call 911 for broken arm

(WANE) — A Fort Wayne Community School mother is emotionally hurting after her daughter broke her arm on the Fairfield Elementary School playground.

D’Jia Wolfe fractured her arm after jumping off the slide. Her mother, Jalana Taylor, got a phone call from the school about the broken bone while she was at work. She said the school confirmed there were firefighters at the school.

When she arrived 20 minutes later, Jalana said there were no emergency vehicles or first responders. Jalana said the school quickly wheeled Wolfe to her car by wheelchair, her arm wrapped in a makeshift sling.

“It hurt my feelings for her to tell me that a fireman was there, setting her arm,” Jalana said. “Then when I got to talk to [D’Jia], she told me it was the security guard who put her arm in a sling with the manila folders.”

“I thought they were going to put something else on my arm, but they put folders,” D’Jia said.

Jalana did not see what her daughter’s arm looked like until she arrived at Lutheran Downtown Hospital, where Emergency Room staff unwrapped it.

“The way her arm was just sitting, I immediately cried,” Taylor said. “[Her arm] was like a horror movie.”

D’Jia had to be transported to another Lutheran Hospital for emergency surgery. Jalana says doctors told her 911 should have been called, and D’Jia should have been rushed to the hospital immediately. Jalana agrees.

WANE 15 reached out to FWCS, asking if emergency responders were called when Wolfe broke her arm and what kind of care was administered to her.

The district provided the following statement:

“Fort Wayne Community Schools takes the health and safety of all students seriously and follows established protocols for medical emergencies. FWCS has communicated directly with the family to ensure appropriate care was provided. While we cannot discuss specific details due to student privacy, our primary focus remains on the well-being of the student,” Scott Murray, Communications Manager of FWCS, said.

When the district reached out to her, Jalana said she told them they did not provide the proper care.

As D’Jia returns to Fairview Elementary on Tuesday, Jalana is worried.

“I have to send her back to school with a broken arm and now I’m concerned, are you going to take the proper care? What if she says she’s in pain? You’ve already let her be in pain one time when it was the worst it could have been.”

Jalana said Fairfield Elementary School staff had reached out to her, offering support for D’Jia’s transition back to school. She appreciated the kind words, but Taylor said she wants an apology for lying about the fireman’s presence at the school, for not calling 911, and for not treating her daughter’s broken arm like an emergency.