{"id":5881,"date":"2017-02-20T10:27:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T23:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=5881"},"modified":"2017-02-20T10:27:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T23:27:51","slug":"kaylah-bounces-back-from-trampoline-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/kaylah-bounces-back-from-trampoline-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaylah bounces back from trampoline fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words by Brigid O’Connell, Herald Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

First published in the Herald Sun on 18 February 2017<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0damage under the skull was so great, the neurosurgeon assumed the unresponsive girl on the operating table before her had been catapulted from a car during a high-speed crash.<\/p>\n

The four-year-old\u2019s skull was not just fractured, but there was a blood clot \u2014 one of the most lethal of all head \u00adinjuries \u2014 and bruising deep into the brain.<\/p>\n

But it was a more innocuous set of circumstances that led to Kaylah Ezard being flown from her Broadford backyard to the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital for emergency surgery.<\/p>\n

\"Pre-op
Kaylah surrounded by her parents and surgical staff preparing her for the operation to replace the skull bone in her head. Picture: David Caird\/Herald Sun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two days after Christmas Kaylah was playing with her sisters on their new enclosed trampoline, when she fell \u2014 most likely when turning around to zip up the net door \u2014 and landed head first on the concrete.<\/p>\n

But, after five weeks in hospital and two surgeries to remove and later replace a palm-sized piece of skull, Kaylah has started kindergarten. She has amazed her parents, Ben and Hayley, with her progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier. The hospital has done absolutely everything they could, and so now we\u2019ve got our little girl back,\u201d Ms Ezard said.<\/p>\n

Since the accident, Mr Ezard has pored over the video on his phone showing his three daughters jumping.<\/p>\n

He pauses the shots, backtracks and zooms in on a still showing their eldest child, six-year-old Mia, climbing out on to the mat, as she turns around to zip up the door.<\/p>\n

He believes Kaylah must have got her heel caught on the mat\u2019s platform at that moment and fallen backwards.<\/p>\n

As a maintenance fitter, Mr Ezard has already designed, in his mind, the railed platform he would build around the trampoline so the girls could walk straight on to it, without risking falling from the ledge.<\/p>\n

In previous years, RCH theatre staff were used to seeing kids with broken arms and wrists who had fallen from trampolines \u2014 with their arms stretched out to break the fall.<\/p>\n

\"Pre-op
Director of Neurosurgery Wirginia Maixner (R) is assisted by Neurosurgery Registrar Dr Patrick Pearce during the surgery. Picture: David Caird\/Herald Sun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But head injuries from trampolines, either from falling backwards when getting out of netted trampolines or from clashes between multiple children bouncing inside, have become more common.<\/p>\n

Last year, 74 children were admitted to the RCH with trampoline injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t expect something that brings so much joy to cause that much injury,\u201d Ms Ezard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t take those safety features of the trampoline, like the net or ladder, for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever take your eyes off them, even for a split second.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been a long road home. For the first week, the pressure of her swollen brain on the optic nerve meant Kaylah could not see.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was horrible,\u201d Ms Ezard said. \u201cShe was crying, \u2018where are you, Mummy? Where are you?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next few days, around New Year\u2019s Eve, Kaylah started seeing colours and then shapes, before her full sight returned.<\/p>\n

Next she could wriggle her left fingers. A day later she could move her arm.<\/p>\n

Kaylah spent a month in a helmet while a piece of skull was removed last month, by neurosurgeon Wirginia Maixner, to give her swollen and injured brain time to heal.<\/p>\n

\"Kaylah
Kaylah Ezard, aged four, fell off the trampoline two days after getting it for Christmas. She fractured her skull and had a brain bleed. Picture: David Caird\/Herald Sun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kaylah will continue to be monitored for the effect the brain injury had on her leg muscle tone.<\/p>\n

Now back at home \u2014 without her helmet or neck brace \u2014 Kaylah knows the trampoline is out of bounds for her.<\/p>\n

She begs her sisters not to play on it without her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe tells them it isn\u2019t fair for her,\u201d Ms Ezard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tend to let them go on it when she isn\u2019t around.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut just one at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no one can tell her she can\u2019t do something.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s too determined and that\u2019s why she\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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