It’s a lovely day here: blue skies, warm, a little breezy, but seemingly perfect weather for going to the park.  In fact we have just returned (myself and the 3 kids) from the park, and I write this while the kids are resting from their busy morning.  While

I was watching them play, I was reminded of a young boy whom I nursed in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.  After caring for this 2 year old, it changed the way I look at playgrounds.  I want to share his story in the hope that his kind of injury will not happen again.

  His particular story stuck with me- not only because his injuries were so horrific from an accident so simple, but because at the time, I also had a 2 year old boy, and I was thinking- ‘this could easily have been my son lying here’.  I also cared for him at a time when I needed to find a head trauma case study to write about for my studies, and so I got to know his story in more depth than I would have otherwise.

  This 2 year old boy was happily playing on a slide or slippery dip that was just over a metre high.  Sound familiar: it’s the sort of play that happens everyday.  Now obviously I was not there, and I can only go by reports received during the course of his hospital admission.  According to what we know, he was supervised- mum was doing the right thing.  However there was another adult there, known to the family, who was playing with this young boy. 

The adult was helping the child walk up the slide by holding his hands.  Unfortunately, the adult’s grip faltered and the boy fell back off the slide onto his head. 

Something that was supposed to be fun ended so tragically.  The boy ended up having seizures and was taken to hospital via ambulance where he then underwent surgery for a bleed on the brain.  He spent many weeks with parents at his side in intensive care. A large part of his skull had to be surgically removed, he was unconscious, intubated and ventilated, tube fed and wires attached to him all over the place to keep his state closely monitored.  He looked horrible with his purple, swollen face, eyes swollen shut.  I can only imagine what his mother and father must have been going through.

  Now I don’t know if this story has a happy ending or not- I didn’t see him again once he had gone to the surgical ward.  I do know that he was in for a long rehab phase and would probably have deficits in his brain function (permanent brain damage).  I really hope that his life wasn’t ruined by this incident.

  Playgrounds can be extremely dangerous, but we do need to let kids be kids: let them explore and play at age appropriate levels, and not be overprotective.  This I understand.  But I do feel that we all could use a bit more common sense in situations that could be potentially dangerous for our children.  This particular accident was freak-like in nature but still potentially preventable.  You just don’t see accidents like this coming, if we did, they wouldn’t happen in the first place.  We need to find that healthy balance between safety and independence, between protectiveness and over protectiveness. Awareness is the key.

 Since my encounter with this patient, I have instigated a few rules when it comes to playground play.  My kids are not allowed to walk up slides.  Slides are for going down, ladders are for going up.  This rule also has the added benefit of avoiding arguments or injuries if someone is coming down the slide at the same time as someone climbing up.  I still let my kids play, climb, swing and explore, but I am now A LOT more aware of activities that could be accidents waiting to happen.  My kids are always assisted in climbing activities until they are confident enough and coordinated enough to attempt them themselves.  They are not allowed near moving swings.  They are not allowed to jump from heights.  Supervision is so important- not just having a physical presence, but being mentally switched on and aware.  Prevention is much better than cure.

I ALWAYS take my mobile phone, fully charged to the park, in case of emergencies.  My greatest fear is that if my child has an accident, and there is no-one else around, who is going to help me?

 In my work, I have the benefit of being able to learn from other peoples mistakes and I hope by sharing this, that someone else out there can learn from this too.

Please have fun but stay safe!