Girl, 6, nearly loses her eye after impaling herself on clothes hook while shopping with her mum
A SIX-year-old girl nearly lost her eye after impaling herself on a clothes hook when shopping with her mum at a shop in Australia.
Cecila Chan suffered the horrific injury when she lost her balance and fell onto a metal clothes rack at Kmart in Chatswood, New South Wales.
The hook pierced her eye socket, but doctors managed to save her eye after performing surgery.
But her devastated mum Jill Huang said it will never look the same.
In an interview with Nine News she said: “It was so sudden. It all happened in less than a second.
“Cecilia wasn’t running around or doing anything silly. No matter how careful her grandma was, she could not have prevented it.”
She added: “Right now we are most worried about Cecilia’s recovery. But her right eye lid will be lower and smaller and never look the same.”
HORROR INJURY
This isn’t an isolated incident in the Australia, and just a month earlier, another child was impaled by a clothing hook at a Target store in Parramatta.
These horrific injuries have forced both Kmart and Target to make safety changes at stores across the country.
Both stores have said that they will now put plastic covers over all its apparel arm hooks, which will be enforced by next year.
This will involve placing 1.2 million caps to cover every hook at Kmart stores and another 900,000 for Target stores, Nine News claim.
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In an statement to Nine News, a Kmart Australia spokesperson said: “Trials have shown these to significantly reduce the risk of injury or laceration if someone accidentally hits the apparel arm.”
Ms Huang told Nine News she was happy about the changes but was still upset it was not done soon enough to prevent her daughter’s injury.
This story was originally reported on news.com.au.