HOUSTON – A new warning to parents and educators about a potential safety hazard in schools and daycares.
One Houston parent got a call from her child’s school hearing the words no parent ever wants to hear, “there’s blood everywhere.”
Rachel Goodlad was 6-months pregnant in March of 2018 with her second child. Her 2-year-old son, Fitz, was attending daycare around the corner.
“They immediately started saying, ‘I’m so sorry but he’s covered in blood, everyone is covered in blood.’ We need you to come to meet us because we’re heading to the hospital.”
As Rachel recalls that traumatic day, she wasn’t even sure how Fitz got injured because it was clear everyone was also unaware of how it happened at that moment.
“When I was opening the gate for my friends, my fingers got stuck in the gate and then they came off,” recalls Fitz Davis. “It bled so much and then I had to go to the ambulance than to the doctor. Then the doctor had to sew my fingers back together.”
Surveillance video from that day was just released and now Rachel and her husband want to share it to show others the dangers that can come along with certain school gates.
In the video, you can see his teacher unlock the gate outside. That’s when Fitz walks over to the gate to let his friends in. The gate swings open, crushing his fingers in a split second.
“One of the teachers said, ‘We forgot to tell you we put his fingernails in a ziplock bag. They’re in his backpack,’” explained Goodlad.
“They took my husband and me outside and said we need you to prepare that we may not be able to fix this,” recalled Goodlad. “Two different hospitals turned him away because the injury was so severe, they didn’t think they would be able to save his fingers and then said they might not be able to save his hand.”
But they did.
They found someone who was able to reconstruct his hand but his doctors said his fingers won’t be able to grow. Goodlad says they will just have to wait until he grows up to see what damage was truly done and if he will need further reconstructive surgery.
Over the last 4 years, Goodlad and her husband have been traveling to Houston area schools, educating teachers about the dangers of certain gates. They have also been in communication with the state to see if there is a way to incorporate new gate regulations into the existing childcare facility standards.
“When we were talking to people at the state level, they told us it was the worst hand injury they had seen out of daycare,” said Goodlad. “Our plastic surgeon tells us he sees this happen all the time, multiple times a week from people all over the Houston area.”
They are thankful Fitz has all his fingers intact but are still concerned that this could happen to someone else, as any parent would be.
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