Photo: Getty
A month aftera 2-year-old girl fell into a rhinoceros exhibitduring a New Year’s Day visit to a Florida zoo, a new report is detailing the extent of the accident and her injuries — and they’re both much more severe than initially thought.
Though zoo officials told FFWCC investigations she was only inside the enclosure for about 10 seconds, the toddler suffered extensive injuries according to the report. Those included a lacerated liver, bruised lung, and contusions to her chest, back, abdomen and head.
The FFWCC’s report also contained photos of the little girl in a hospital bed. In the images, she wears a neck brace and has visible bruises on her right cheek, right hip, and navel area. A breathing tube is in her mouth.
She was airlifted to the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando and was there for five days, the report said, as she recovered from her injuries. Her mother suffered a bruise on her arm, and her father had scrapes and contusions, as they pulled their daughter from the rhinos.
The girl and her parents were the only ones participating in that encounter that day, the FFWCC said in their report. The family is friends with one of the supervisors running the encounter that day.
“Our number one concern is the safety and welfare of our guests and our hearts go out to the family,” Keith Winsten, the Zoo’s executive director, said in an online statement in January. “Safety has always been of paramount importance to us and we are suspending these encounters until we have thoroughly reviewed our processes and procedures to ensure this cannot happen again.”
Winsten has since said that the Zoo will “add some horizontal pieces” to the vertical poles to prevent an incident like this happening again, KT-LA reported.
source: people.com
