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Girl making good progress after hand reattached
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A LITTLE girl whose hand was reattached after she lost it in an escalator accident is making good progress, hospital officials said yesterday.
Her thumb and three fingers are in good condition, officials from the Shanghai No.6 People’s Hospital said.
However, they said that the 3-and-a-half-year-old’s little finger does not seem to be responding so well. The tip of her pinkie has turned black, officials told Shanghai Daily.
The girl, who lost her left hand at a clothing market at Qipu Road in Hongkou District, must now stay under observation for a fortnight to see how her hand recovers, doctors said.
The accident happened at about 4pm on July 31 when the child, identified as “Wenwen,” got her hand trapped between the side panel and step of an escalator traveling down from the second floor.
Her parents run a nail salon on the first floor of the market.
A salesman heard a cry and saw the girl lying at the bottom of the escalator with her left hand trapped, reported the Shanghai Morning Post.
A saleswoman knew there was a stop button on the second floor and shouted to bystanders. While many froze in shock, one man rushed to the second floor and hit the button.
Wenwen’s mother and uncle arrived at the scene and found the little girl conscious but with her hand trapped.
Under the direction of Liu Junjie, leader of the Hongkou firefighting division, escalator maintenance workers opened the escalator cover and it was discovered that little Wenwen’s left hand had been severed.
“In my 11 years as a firefighter, this is the most serious escalator accident I’ve seen,” Liu told reporters.
As she was rushed to hospital, medics and firefighters remained in the market and found her hand after 20 minutes. It was later reattached.
Wenwen is now in an isolation ward to prevent infection, with only medics and her mother allowed to be with her.
Liu and his wife Zhu Xiujuan have a child of a similar age and went to see Wenwen this week, though they only got a glimpse from outside her ward.
“Our kid is also a little over three years old, so we can understand the pain of the girl and her family,” he said.
Wenwen’s father is worried about the psychological as well as physical affects of the accident on her daughter, said the Shanghai Morning Post.
“She’s very agitated and sometimes she awakes with a start. She only feels safe when her mother’s with her,” said the father.
The escalator involved in the accident was made by Hanghzou Xiziotis Co Ltd and maintained by Shanghai Dongsheng Elevator Engineering Company, according to details printed on it.
But Dongsheng said its service contract with the market expired last December, according to Shanghai Morning Post.
Two workers from an escalator company named Huli said they helped free the girl, but their company said it knew nothing about the accident nor escalator, the newspaper reported.
Wenwen’s uncle questioned why nobody stopped children playing near the escalator. Market workers said there had been several accidents before.
Tests are taking place on the escalator, said quality authorities in Hongkou.
The space between an escalator’s side and steps should be narrower than 4 millimeters, according to China’s 2012 code for escalators.
But experts have said that this is too wide for children.
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