A schoolboy has spoken out after a freak trampoline accident left him with a metal spring embedded in his back.
Jamie Quinlan, 12, was playing on his friend’s trampoline in Louth, Lincolnshire, when the six-inch metal spring shot out at 70mph ‘like a bullet’.
The spring ripped through the young boy’s t-shirt and lodged into his back just centimetres away from his spine, with Jamie’s parents fearing they ‘could have lost him’.
Jamie was rushed to hospital by an ambulance on Sunday afternoon (September 1) where surgeons removed the spring, which had created a two-inch deep hole in his skin.
The 12-year-old, who studies at Louth Academy, said he was bouncing on the trampoline when he suddenly felt a ‘strange and heavy’ sensation in his back.
He explained:
When I was in the waiting room at the hospital, I was really nervous. It took them about ten minutes to actually get the spring out of my back. The doctors said they had never heard of something like this happening with a trampoline.
Sometimes it still feels like the spring is in my back, but I am getting a lot better and stronger now.
The schoolboy said he is just ‘relieved’ his injuries weren’t more severe, and that the spring landed where it did instead of somewhere more dangerous.
Jamie’s parents, Ian, 62, and 55-year-old Sandra, are speaking out about the incident in the hope that it will warn other parents of the dangers of trampolines.
Ian, a full-time carer for his wife who has Parkinson’s disease, described the freak trampoline accident as ‘terrible’ and said both he and Sandra were ‘really scared’ when they found out what had happened.
He said:
It could have happened to anyone. Jamie has been so brave. I want people to be aware of how dangerous trampolines can be if there’s no cover on the springs, or if there’s a gap.
The spring had come off the trampoline like a bullet. If it had hit elsewhere on Jamie’s body, in his head or throat, we could have lost him.
Children are the most important things in our lives, so people need to be aware of the dangers in their own back garden.
Ian, who has two other sons with Sandra, urged other parents to check their trampolines because ‘one loose spring could be lethal’.
Jamie underwent emergency surgery on Sunday and was kept in overnight at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, before being discharged on Monday.
UNILAD sends its well wishes to Jamie, and hopes he makes a full recovery.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).