HORROR AS LILLY, 6 IMPALED ON METAL RAILING
Schoolgirl needed four hours of surgery
A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl suffered life-changing injuries when she was impaled on a garden fence.
Lilly McDaid fell off the roof of a bin shed on to the metal railings.
One of the posts speared through her bottom, causing horrific injuries.
Lilly managed to pull herself off the railings before collapsing.
She needed four hours of surgery and although recovering, she is still suffering physical and psychological trauma.
Lilly’s mum Michele said: “It was horrendous. I was round at my older daughter’s house, which is just up the road from me, when we heard screaming.
“She had been playing and climbed up on top of a bin shed when she slid and fell on to the fence.
“The fence went into her backside. She had also cuts on her hands. She wedged herself off the fence and came into the house.”
Michele, of Castlemilk, Glasgow, added: “She was in shock. There was a lot of blood and Lilly was in a lot of pain. We took her to Victoria Infirmary but they sent us to Yorkhill as she needed to be seen by specialists straight away.
“It was terrible. I would never want to see any other child go through that.”
During bowel surgery, Lilly was fitted with a stoma bag. It sits on her abdomen and collects waste.
Mum-of-four Michele, 43, said: “It’s not just the pain and the physical injuries, it’s also the psychological effect on her.
“She is now able to move about a bit better and has just started back at school but she is really nervous.
“She is a bit paranoid about the bag and whether or not people will be able to see it.
“We don’t know yet whether it will be temporary or whether she will need it permanently.
“The psychological effect will last a long time. She was always very outgoing and had loads of clubs to go to. But now she isn’t able to go and she feels she has lost a lot of her independence.
“But she has been brave and is desperate to get better.”
Michele slammed housing chiefs for refusing to change the fence.
She is angry that they wrote a letter saying they hoped Lilly recovered soon but stating that they would not be removing the railings.
Michele added: “I would prefer it if they changed the fences so this can’t happen again. If it happened once, it could happen again. I would hate to think of anyone else going through this.”
A spokesman for Thenue Housing in Glasgow said: “We were very sorry to learn of this accident.
“With regard to the fence, this design is very widely used across housing developments across the UK.
“We would never install fencing when homes are being built or renovated which was a danger to our tenants.”