A four-year-old girl suffocated while playing on an inflatable bouncy castle at an amusement park, while the staff were allegedly staring at their cell phones.
On a family day out to the amusement park in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, a young girl named Valeria tragically lost her life on Saturday, May 13. Reports suggest that she unintentionally hung herself after getting ensnared in the cords tied to the bouncy castle. Not hearing her daughter’s laughter sparked concern for her mother, Anna, who sought the park staff to check on her daughter’s condition.
Allegations were put forth by local media outlets, claiming that the park attendants, who were charged with the responsibility of supervising the children, were instead engrossed in their smartphones at the time of the tragic occurrence. Upon the dreadful discovery of her daughter’s lifeless body, Anna begged the staff for help, but they allegedly ran off.
Natalia Kuchynska, a trusted family friend, said Anna initially presumed her daughter had succumbed to heat exhaustion and had fainted, leading her to attempt to resuscitate the child.
The situation quickly turned grave, with bystanders at the park alerting emergency services, and others fervently attempting to revive Valeria by splashing her with water and performing CPR.
With no immediate medical help available on-site, a bystander dashed to a nearby dental clinic to seek help, hoping they could examine Valeria and attempt to revive her using ammonia and light. Despite these desperate efforts, they were unsuccessful, and the arriving paramedics declared Valeria dead.
Sergiy Shaikhet, the chief of police in the Mykolaiv Oblast region, disclosed that early investigations point to suffocation due to entanglement in the bouncy castle’s loops as the cause of Valeria’s tragic death.
As investigations continue, the 45-year-old proprietor of the bouncy castle has been detained by the authorities. If convicted, she might be looking at a maximum sentence of eight years.
