Wow, legomom I am so sorry for your son. I'm sure a broken nose is horrible and for a 15 yr old, how embarrassing. I hope he is okay.
I will share a similar story about my own DS. When he was about 6 my DS and another dcb were outside playing and my DS comes inside and says tome, "Mom, John hurt my finger" and he holds up his hand so I can see his right index finger. I look and it looks a little red on top but then I notice a drop of blood fall onto the floor and I say, "Let me see the other side of your hand" He shows me and I about lost it!! His finger bone was sticking out about 2 inches and the finger was split right open and looked like it was blown open in an explosion! I got so dizzy and faint like...my DS meanwhile is just standing there calm as could be (in shock, I'm sure). So anyways, I luckily had my assistant there with me that day and she stayed and closed the daycare while I rushed my DS to the ER. Long story short...we were transported 85 miles away to have emergency surgery by a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in the middle of the night. (We had no one qualified in my town). Well, after staying in the hospital over night with my son and not sleeping a wink, I drove home the next day and opened up daycare as normal. My son ended up having 2 pins placed in his knuckle and 8 months of bi-weekly physical therapy. His finger is still only 85% normal.
The parents of the son who was involved in the incident with my kid came to daycare for a week or two afterwards, but eventually told me that they felt so bad about the whole thing that they just could'nt have their son in daycare any more. The had Grandma watch him. It wasn't that he was a bad kid because he wasn't. He was really good and sort of shy and quiet (whole family was). They just were so stressed over the fact that accidents can happen that they couldn't take it. I found out years later when my DS was in high school with John that he (John) wasn't allowed to play sports because his parents were so worried someone could get hurt. I felt so bad that this family was so freaked out by the possibility of accidental injuries that it limited their lives. I could tell horror stories about my youth and the things we got hurt doing or could have gotten hurt while doing.
I think that things do happen and sometimes no matter how cautious we are or how prepared we are, stuff still happens. Some times we are the victims and sometimes we are the cause but either way I think the main thing is intention and there was no intention of hurting anyone so it is just unfortuante that it happened. I would feel a bit angry if I were you as well but I would honestly just feel that way for a bit and then be fine. I wouldn't expect the other family to do anything beside apologize and feel sympathetic to your son. Even apologizing is just a coutesy since even they can't control their DD behaviors, especially not when they aren't even with her.
Good wishes for a speedy recovery to your son and I hope there is no lasting permanent damage.
