Every year thousands of children suffer severe injuries, some resulting in amputation, as a result of a lawnmower accident. The most heart breaking thing about these stories is that in many cases the parents had taken precautions to keep the children inside and away from the mower at the time, but the children had managed to get out and approached the lawnmower to either show their parent something or to play a trick on them. Young children aren’t really capable of grasping how dangerous a lawn mower can be, which is especially dangerous when the person operating it can’t see what or who is behind them.
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A 5-year-old boy from Michigan was injured badly by a lawnmower operated by his grandmother when he ran up behind it as she was reversing.He had been told to stay on the porch of the house and not to approach the mower, but anyone with children knows they don’t always do as they are told.The boy suffered serious internal injuries and may have to undergo a bowel transplant and skin grafts on his leg after the run in with the lawn mower blades.Luckily, an off-duty firefighter living nearby heard the commotion and attended, calling the emergency services and requesting helicopter transport to hospital, an action that may well have saved his life.
Earlier this year we heard about 3-year-old Taryn Graalfs from Omaha having a leg amputated after she slipped down an embankment in her garden and ended up underneath a lawn mower.Her leg was removed by the mower, leaving her shin bones exposed.She is now learning to walk again with a prosthetic but has been finding it hard to carry the extra weight of the prosthetic, which is nearly a sixth of her total body weight.She will have to undergo several more surgeries as she grows, because her leg bones will continue to grow, but for now she seems to have adapted as well as can be expected from such a young child.
4-year-old Brailey Partida has a similar success story to tell, as she recently took her first steps with her prosthetic leg.She had been riding on the lawnmower with her grandmother two months previously when she fell off and was caught by the blades underneath, severing her right leg just above the ankle.Brailey’s wish was to walk again before her 5th birthday, which came just a few days after receiving her prosthetic; what a great birthday present to have.
These children and others who have been affected by amputation following lawnmower accidents can look up to New Zealand’s Paralympic swimmer Sophie Pascoe, who had her left leg amputated at two years of age, following a lawnmower accident on the family property.She has gone on to represent her country at three summer games, achieving nine gold medals and six silver medals in that time.In 2008, she was the youngest New Zealander to win a medal when she came in second in the 100m butterfly, going on to become the country’s youngest ever gold medallist in London, 2012.Her father, who was operating the lawnmower, has been affected by the incident ever since, but Sophie describes it as the best thing that ever happened to her; an opinion that has no doubt been formed as a result of her swimming success.One day we may see some Partida and Graalfs representing America at a Paralympic Games and inspiring other young children who have lost a limb as a result of a lawnmower accident.