Child suffers severe foot injury, toe amputated after McDonald’s slide incident
A toddler was seriously injured in an accident on Tuesday at the McDonald's Huis ter Heide in Utrecht province, resulting in severe foot injuries and the loss of a toe. The victim is a young girl from Utrecht. Out of respect for privacy, authorities have not released her name or precise age, AD reports.
As the girl was using a slide, a sudden scream was heard, and it became clear she had suffered a serious foot injury with significant bleeding. Doctors later determined at the hospital that the damage was so severe that a toe had to be amputated.
Witnesses, including a nearby resident and restaurant employees, quickly stepped in to provide first aid. “My husband was able to help the seriously injured girl and her mother, thankfully. We suddenly heard a lot of screaming. Of course, everyone looked. The girl’s shoe had to be taken off; everything was covered in blood.”The toddler was subsequently taken to hospital by ambulance.
The toddler’s mother told Hart van Nederland that she had previously warned the McDonald's at Huis ter Heide about this specific slide. “It’s heartbreaking. My daughter has been crying a lot. I can hardly process everything that happened. I’ve been visiting this McDonald’s for years and even warned them before about this slide, as there was a crack in it. It gets fixed temporarily, but the problem keeps coming back. In my view, it’s obvious the equipment should be taken down straight away.” Following the accident, the equipment was shut down straight away and cordoned off.
The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) is conducting a formal investigation into how the accident happened and the technical condition of the playground equipment.
“We are shocked by this accident. Our first concern was how the girl is doing. We have been in contact with the mother, and that went well,” a spokesperson for McDonald’s said to AD.
The company also points out that all playground equipment must be inspected annually by a certified authority, and that this slide had undergone such an inspection.
