An Australian mum has issued a warning on Facebook to other parents, after her daughter was strangled by her sunhat in the school playground.
Gail Oster, from Adelaide, purchased the summer hat from the school uniform shop just 24 hours before her daughter Marley suffered the “really bad” incident.
Six-year-old Oster was using the slide at school, when the hat string became stuck on the slide and started to strangle her, leaving red ligature marks on her throat. Luckily for Oster, friend Madison Fleming was able to detach her in time.
This quick thinking from her classmate potentially saved Oster’s life, as her mum explained to The Adelaide Advertiser: “The doctor told me another 45 seconds and her windpipe would have collapsed.”
“She’s been having nightmares ever since. She’s never had nightmares in her life”.
In the 24 hours following the accident, Oster was prescribed antibiotics and anti-scar cream to help treat the red mark on her neck.
Now she wants to spread the message to other families about the danger of the cords on hats, even the supposedly safety-checked ones.
This is because the hat she bought did have a quick release safety-clip, which was supposed to open under pressure, but it didn’t work.
Now Oster warns other parents: “Please all parents either check your child’s hat that the clip releases under pressure or cut the cord completely off the hat.”
She is also encouraging other parents whose children have suffered similar injuries to post the pictures and name and shame the hat brand model, so other parents can be made aware of the danger.