A mother is demanding an apology from an Edgware primary school after her son was in a coma for five days following a playground accident.

Five-year-old Zackary Cohen spent four weeks in hospital after banging heads with another boy during the lunch-hour at Broadfield Primary School, in Hartland Drive.

He is now confined to a special buggy, slurs his speech and has a permanent squint.

However, on the day of the accident on September 18, Zackary was not sent home by teachers because they could not find a bump. Four hours later, he collapsed in his mother’s arms and was rushed to Barnet Hospital, in Wellhouse Lane, where doctors discovered he had bleeding in his brain.

His mother, Tricia Cohen, said the school should have called her immediately when her son “was obviously subdued and acting completely out of character”.

She also claimed no staff witnessed the accident and criticised the school for not having proper supervision procedures in place.

She said: “The nurse and teachers made a judgement that everything was completely fine, when it was obvious something was wrong. The first I knew about the accident was when I got a call from the guy from the after-school club to say Zack seemed upset, so I rushed over straight away.

“When I got to the school I found him being sick and immediately called an ambulance.

“But by the time the doctors found the bleed and rushed him to Great Ormond Street Hospital, he was already slipping away from me.

“It was awful. I felt dizzy, confused, disorientated. I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

Zackary seemed to recover from the emergency operation but, eight hours later, doctors were forced to put him into a chemically-induced coma after they discovered a swelling on his brain.

When he awoke five days later he was paralysed on his left side and had restricted movement on his right. He returned home after six weeks of treatment, but remains unable to walk or speak properly.

The school insisted it followed correct procedures, as outlined by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

A Barnet Council spokesman, speaking on behalf of the school, said: “Trained first aid staff from the school followed procedures in accordance with DCSF first aid guidelines and the council’s health and safety officers are curr- ently investigating circumstances around this case.”

Now back home with his mother, Zackary receives speech therapy, has physiotherapy four times a week and rarely leaves the house.

Mrs Cohen says doctors have told her he may never fully recover.

“He was once an active, happy child, with amazing charisma and lots of friends, but he is now sad and depressed,” she said.

“But the school has offered no explanation or apology. My son’s life has been taken away from him and they don’t seem to care.”