A Toddler’s Accident with the Treadmill Machine
The day was a horrible and terrifying one. It was when we just had our lunch meal and went upstairs for an evening nap.
I just laid down for a minute and suddenly I hear my 3 year old son’s voice screaming: My hand! My hand!
I woke up immediately and rushed to him. There he was, his hand and arm stuck under the treadmill machine while it was on on speed number 1. He was trying to reach out to the ball under the machine. Unfortunately, the space was too small and the machine grabbed his hand with the ball.
My 13 year old daughter switched off the machine and I gently removed off his hand and arm.
We were all in great shock. My breathing was shallow and heart beats were extremely fast. My son was silently shocked and didn’t cry until he saw his sisters crying. That was the time he actually cried.
For me, the first thing in my mind was: Go to hospital straight away. We rushed immediately to emergency.
The injuries he had were skin scratches on his left hand and arm, the left side of his face, top of his shoulder, behind his left ear and bruises around his left eye and cheek.
I was so scared that he might have got a fracture or a broken bone. But thanks to Allah, his x-ray check-ups confirmed he was fine.
The people whose emotions were severely shaked were my two daughters (13 and 10 years old). Throughout the check-ups and procedures in the emergency, they were full in tears and sorrow.
My 10 year old daughter asked me this when we were on the way back home: Mama, why didn’t you cry when this happened to my brother? I replied her: Honey, I was shocked and scared too. But my focus was to rush him to hospital. Plus, I have seen him in situations more painful and sad than this one. Maybe that could be the reason.
Main learning takeaways from this experience are:
Keep the treadmill machine in a room locked 24/7.
Never leave the treadmill machine plugged ON when no adults are around.