A five year old boy fell head-first onto a metal barrier at Changi Airport. The incident occurred on Nov 20 when the family were visiting Terminal 3 so the kids could play on the slides.
The accident happened when the older sibling was enjoying the slide connecting Basement 2 to Basement 3. The boy was returning to take the slide again when he tripped and fell.
His father told Mothership that his son hit one of the metal barriers near the slide. Everything happened “very fast”, and soon he saw blood on his son’s right eye. The boy’s glasses also shattered to pieces.
“He was crying and screaming…I knew, at that point of time, that some fragments [of his spectacles] might be inside his eye,” said the father.
The parents rushed their son to the nearest clinic in the terminal. Doctors assessed the boy’s condition and said he couldn’t be treated at the clinic because the injury was too serious.
The boy was later conveyed to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital by ambulance.
A doctor confirmed that sharp pieces of the boy’s spectacle lenses pierced into his cornea, and he required “immediate surgery.”
“[The doctors] washed off his blood, took the fragments [of the spectacle lenses] out, and sew the wound back,” said the father.
“It was very terrifying because he’s only a five-year-old kid. [My wife and I] had a total meltdown. He has to be injected and sedated every day in the hospital so that they can check his eye.”
The father added that they don’t know exactly when their son will be discharged. “His eye needs to be treated every hour. He can’t sleep well… I also cannot sleep well. Each time they treat his eye, he will cry. It’s very painful for all of us.”
The father also said that his son’s vision in his right eye was “80 per cent” gone.
The parents admitted they now regret taking their son to Changi Airport, they never expected a normal day’s outing would end up at the hospital.
The father is also concerned that his son will eventually wonder why his parents took him to the airport and why he can’t see like other people.
The parents have since suggested changing the metal barriers to retractable queue stands after what happened.
The online community highlighted that parents should educate their children to prevent such accidents.
Netizens extended sympathy toward the young boy and his family, although they noted that mishaps involving children can be prevented with closer supervision.
“My sympathies to the young kid and their parents. But honestly, the accident is caused by the kid’s own ‘run-and-trip’; it’s not caused by him tripping over the metal barrier, neither is it due to faults in the design of the metal barrier. I hardly see the fault on the side of the building management. Not sure what kind of compensation the parents want. Nowadays, seeing more cases of mishaps involving children, then their parents want to seek compensation when there isn’t even a case. Hope this doesn’t become the norm for parents when it’s because they can’t educate their kids well. Regardless, no one wishes this kind of thing to happen, so I hope the boy has a speedy recovery,” said a netizen.
“Don’t playgrounds have signs that say parental guidance is required? So, the same common sense applies to other play areas as well. Hope the boy’s eye recovers fully, it must be very painful,” said Facebook user Wee Meng.
Many also noted that children should wear plastic lenses as glass spectacles can break./TISG
