Firemen called to free finger
Squashed digit one of thousands of injuries suffered by Kiwi kids
"Her finger was just so flat and white. The finger was about 1cm longer than normal. She said to me ‘it hurts so much Mum, it hurts so much’."
Nadia Prakash
Trapped in a bathroom cubicle at her kindy with her finger stuck in a door hinge, little Aria Prakash cried out through tears: “Am I going to be stuck here forever?”.
The Rotorua 3-year-old’s fingertip was flattened between two pieces of metal inside the hinge. The door couldn’t be moved without squishing her finger more.
New ACC claim figures show hers was just one of nearly 450,000 injuries children and teenagers suffered in New Zealand last year. The figures show the most common way young people were injured was losing their balance.
The most common injuries were to soft tissue, with cuts and stings, fractures and dislocations, dental injuries, concussions and foreign objects in an orifice or eye also making the top 10.
Aria’s ordeal
The first Aria’s mum Nadia Prakash knew of her daughter’s ordeal was a phone call at work on July 26.
She heard the words of her worst nightmare – she needed to get to her daughter’s kindy quickly, and an ambulance and the fire service were on the way.
Prakash was stuck the entire drive to Montessori Rotorua Preschool behind a police car travelling about 5km/h below the speed limit.
“He was driving so slow, so I was honking my horn.”
Prakash now believes given her hysterical state, the slow-moving vehicle was God’s way of keeping her safe.
On the way, she called her husband, Varun, to meet her at the kindy as he had a rare day off from working in Whakatāne – another divine act, she believes.
Prakash said she was “fearing the worst” as her daughter had a history of choking incidents linked to digestive issues from being born prematurely.
Aria stopped growing inside her mother at 20 weeks and needed help to survive when she was born.
At the kindy, one of the eight firemen on the scene met Prakash to explain how Aria got her finger jammed and prepare her.
She found her stuck daughter smelling imaginary flowers and blowing the petals off – a technique Prakash taught her to take deep breaths and stay calm.
“My sister [a teacher at the kindy] had told her to smell and blow 30 flowers and [then] … I would be there.”
Aria was down to seven flowers when Prakash arrived, just before the rescuers got the hinge off Aria’s finger.
Prakash said she held her daughter to her heart and prayed as the firemen carefully dismantled and opened the hinge.
Looking at her daughter’s freed finger, Prakash was shocked.
“Her finger was just so flat and white. The finger was about 1cm longer than normal. She said to me ‘it hurts so much mum, it hurts so much’.”
She heard someone say the finger looked pulverised.
“I turned to my sister and said ‘I think it’s gone’.”
Prakash’s husband arrived just in time to drive them to hospital.
Prakash said Aria’s finger was squashed about 30 minutes and they did not know what to expect. But to the doctors’ surprise, there were no broken bones.
Today Aria’s finger is as good as new and there’s no nerve damage.
“We’ve always said Aria is a walking miracle and she’s made from God’s grace.”
Prakash said Aria would tell people “the firemen saved my life”, so to say thanks the family visited the Rotorua Fire Station a month after the accident with cupcakes Aria helped bake.
“They were just so kind to her and I can’t thank them enough.”
Fire and Emergency Green Watch Rotorua station officer Tristan Saunders said crews were occasionally called for situations other than fires because they had special rescue equipment – not needed in this case – and training.
“A lot of our staff are also parents so they know how to deal with children . . . Once they knew what the problem was, they went straight to work and managed to sort the situation out.”
Prakash said the incident was an accident and the hinges had been changed, despite already being childproof.
“She is just a curious little girl and now knows not to stick her finger in something like that again.”
Prakash said the kindy staff handled the situation perfectly.
“It was traumatic for all of us but she [Aria] was so brave. She blows me away with her resilience.”
The Ministry of Education confirmed it was notified on the day of the injury, and an investigation found the preschool followed its procedures, managed the incident immediately and eliminated the hazard.
Kiwi kids’ most common injuries
The Rotorua Daily Post obtained ACC figures for new injury claims for children in New Zealand last year.
There were 443,925 new claims for children and teens overall. Those in the 10–14 age group were injured more than any other.
By far the greatest cause of young people being hurt was losing their balance or “personal control” (more than 170,000), followed by being struck by a person or an animal, then collisions or being knocked over by an object.
At the other end of the scale, more than 1100 young people were injured after ingesting fungi, or from sleep or losing consciousness.
● Editor’s note: Praskash is a classified sales consultant for NZME, publisher of the Rotorua
Daily Post.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily
Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.