Kindy fall injuries horrify boy’s family
An investigation has been launched after a disabled boy was injured when he fell down stairs at a kindergarten in his wheelchair.
The family of Masua Tusa say they were not told about the accident and only discovered the 4 year old had been hurt when the little boy’s mother arrived to collect him.
An aunt, Leika Tusa, had been waiting outside Manurewa West Kindergarten and said Masua’s mother was in tears as she emerged with the boy, who has cerebral palsy.
“We looked at his face and it was terrible,” she said.
“It looked like someone had beaten him up or punched him in the face.”
Masua’s left eye was closed, his nose was still bleeding and the skin on his face raw and painful.
“Normally, he will be happy to see us,” Tusa said.
“But he wasn’t smiling at all, he was just staring at us, like he was lost.”
The family took their son to the doctor, where he had X-rays. He was given the all-clear and they were told Masua had not suffered any major injuries.
However, photos taken later that night showed Masua with his left eye still swollen shut.
When Masua’s grandfather, Nonoa Tusa, came home from work at 7pm, he was furious.
“It was lucky the kindergarten was closed,” he said.
“My wife was trying to cool me down. He’s the only grandson we have.”
Unable to sleep, Nonoa put up a post on Facebook outlining what had happened along with photos of Masua.
He said it was the second time his grandson had fallen in his wheelchair at the kindergarten, after he scratched his head in the last fall.
The kindergarten had promised to have someone supervise Masua at all times, so how could this happen, he asked.
The family reported the incident to police on Thursday.
The kindergarten had also called the family and asked them to a meeting with its manager..
A staff member, who asked not to be named, said the kindy was taking the matter “very seriously” and had let the necessary people know about the situation.
“We’re working with our head office and we’re also working with the Ministry of Education, as well, to make sure that they know that we worked hard to try and do everything that we could for him.
We looked at his face and it was terrible. Leika Tusa
“And that we were supervising him at the time.”
The woman said they had tried to contact Masua’s mother, but only had one contact number for her and had been unable to make contact.
Leika Tusa felt kindergarten staff needed to tell her more about the incident, which happened after lunch on Thursday.
It was only when his family came to pick him up that they discovered his injuries.
She said when Masua’s mum went to pick him up inside the kindergarten, staff had left his wheelchair facing the wall.
She had to turn him around before she saw his face.
When they went back to the kindergarten yesterday to ask them again what had happened, the staff member seemed to struggle to tell her story and answer the questions put to her.
Masua himself cannot talk well enough to say what happened.
But Tusa said the only thing her nephew repeated every time they asked about the incident was “teacher, teacher”.