A mum has slammed a bouncy castle event after her son was “catapulted through the air” onto the floor and had to go to A&E.
Elaine Fraser took two-years-and-nine-months-old son Greyson to the ‘Bounce’ event running at Sunderland Live, formerly Rainton Arena, in Houghton-le-Spring last week.
The mum-of-three thought she had booked in for a session especially for under fours, but says older kids were allowed in and she wasn’t allowed on the inflatables to help her toddler.
Elaine, a stay-at-home mum from Sunderland, said: “I’d seen it advertised on Facebook and a friend messaged me suggesting we should go.
“We booked the tickets online for the ‘Family Bounce’ session from 10am to 12pm which was meant to be for zero- to four-year-olds.
“We had to pay £6 for an extra adult for my partner Chris to come too.
“When we got there my friend said to me there’s lots of older kids coming in. Some were about 11- or 12-years-old.”
Elaine, 36, says that Chris, a taxi driver, went to go on the bouncy castles with Greyson but was told he wasn’t allowed on.
“They said he wasn’t allowed on.
“At one point Greyson got stuck at the top of a slide scared to come down and they said we couldn’t go up to help him. We had to stand there while the man went up and got him instead.
“He went on another bouncy castle and next thing I just saw him shoot through the air over the side and hearing him scream. I think one of the older children had bounced and he’d been catapulted over the side.
“There was no crash mat and he landed on the floor his head. He had a huge bump.
“We asked for a first aider and at first they said there was no one, but then a lady came to help and got him an ice pack.
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“We went to A&E and they kept him in for monitoring for three hours before we could take him home.
“It could have been a lot worse – he could have broken his nose.”
Elaine has emailed Sunderland Live to complain and says she is awaiting a reply.
“It just didn’t feel safe,” she added. “They should let adults on with their kids, especially when it was meant to be under fours and there weren’t meant to be older children there.”
A Sunderland Live spokesperson said: “We have spoken to Elaine Fraser on the telephone with regards to her son Greyson’s incident at the venue on August 28, for an update on the treatment required at hospital.
“We have also spoken to the relevant staff on duty that day, and I can confirm that the appropriate first aid was administered to her son.
“Full health and safety checks were carried out before the doors opened and during the event.
“As a gesture of goodwill a full refund of her tickets purchased for the Family Bounce event will be arranged.”
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