The eight-year-old girl who had her finger cut off when it got tangled in a wire at the swimming pool in Laugardalur in Reykjavík on Saturday will be disabled for life. Despite an eight-hour surgery immediately after the accident, her finger could not be saved.
“It is a playground for children, which is supposed to be safe. I think it is brutal that a child goes swimming and comes back disabled for life,” the girl’s mother, who prefers to remain anonymous, told Morgunbladid.
The pool’s management said the wire had been used to support a warning signal for a hot tub, but the mother stated those claims were wrong. She said there had been no signal on the wire and that it had been difficult to spot.
The girl told her mother that she had gotten out of the water and that conditions by the pool had been very slippery at the time. She had wanted to support herself to the rail, but suddenly her hand was on the wire and her right-hand index finger got tangled in it. Then she lost her balance, fell backwards and the finger got cut off.
The cut was so uneven that the finger could not be repaired and replaced on the girl’s hand successfully. It became evident yesterday that the finger could not be saved and it will be removed with another surgery tomorrow.
After the accident, the swimming pool’s staff removed the wire. “The cutters were there. This accident could have been prevented if only the wire had been cut off sooner,” the mother said.
The Department of Sports and Leisure in Reykjavík (ÍTR) issued a statement to the media yesterday, saying this case will be investigated and that every point will be looked into, which is the normal procedure when accidents occur at ÍTR’s work places.
According to the statement, ÍTR’s employees reacted in the appropriate way and the swimming pool’s management is in no way trying to avoid responsibility or liability for compensation, should that be requested.
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