8-Year-Old Girl's Family Sues Over HORRIFIC Water Slide Injury (Seriously, Do Not Read If You Are At All Squeamish!)

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

[SECOND WARNING – Seriously This Is Violent, Upsetting Stuff!]

An 8-year-old girl in Australia lost a PINT of blood from injuries sustained at a water park back in 2020 — and now her family has filed suit against the park’s owners.

Back on November 22, 2020, the young girl and her siblings visited Dreamworld‘s WhiteWater World amusement park on the nation’s Gold Coast. But a vacation turned into a nightmare when they went down the park’s popular Fully 6 Slide — and something went horribly, horribly wrong. And the girl’s family now says it was because park staffers failed to share a key safety rule.

[FINAL WARNING]

The unnamed girl went down the slide at great speed — as expected. But at some point during the ride, according to 7 News, her legs somehow became uncrossed. The legal complaint, which was first reported on by that Australian outlet on Monday, asserts the “forceful impact” of the water injured the girl while she was zooming down the tube.

Because she was going so fast with her legs were wide open, the girl’s family claims she suffered “significant internal injuries” from the force. The suit asserts she was left “bleeding for two weeks” from between her legs at the site of the water’s impact. And she eventually needed surgery to repair awful internal tears and stem the “significant” vaginal bleeding.

According to the legal filing, once the girl got to the bottom of the slide, she was in severe pain. Her mother, who is only identified in media reports as Sarah, rushed for help. However, the suit claims she “could not immediately find a lifeguard.” In the frantic moments where the family was searching for a staffer to assist, the suit alleges the girl lost “an estimated 500 milliliters of blood.”

For those of us in America, that’s MORE THAN A PINT OF BLOOD! A pint! Out of an 8-year-old!!

While she was “bleeding profusely” from between her legs, her mother and others covered the girl in towels. The poor kiddo was eventually taken to the park’s first aid room. There, she was attended to by a paramedic and a nurse before being rushed to a hospital in an ambulance for further care.

Since then, the suit claims, the girl has faced “abdominal pain, anxiety, and nightmares.” Understandable. Sarah is also said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at having to mentally re-live her daughter’s ordeal.

Now the girl’s family is seeking £500,000 in damages. Their filing names Dreamworld’s parent company Ardent Leisure and park contractor Swimplex Aquatics as defendants. The suit’s main claim is that staffers allegedly failed to tell the girl that she needed to keep her legs crossed on the slide. Their negligence for failing to do that, the family says, caused the massive injuries.

Bree Smith of the law firm Shine Lawyers released a statement to the media regarding her client’s ordeal:

“This was an incredibly traumatic injury for somebody to suffer at any age, let alone a girl who’s just eight years old. We’re alleging that park staff failed to properly educate [her] on how to go down the ride safely, and that if a risk assessment had been done they would’ve identified the potential for injury.”

Smith continued, saying both the daughter and the mother Sarah are suffering as a result:

“Our evidence is that there were no lifeguards in the splash down who responded to the injury area at the time and that it was up to [the girl’s] mom to get her help for what was plainly a serious injury. As a result of the serious injury to her daughter and the ongoing trauma, and having to find help for her daughter on her own, Sarah has been diagnosed with PTSD and has chronic post-traumatic anxiety symptoms. This incident has had a profound impact on the family, and it’s likely it will take a great deal of time yet for them to recover.”

Sounds legit to us. We feel traumatized, and all we did was read about it!

After the filing this week, 7 News reports a WhiteWater World spokesperson noted the theme park “acknowledges the injury sustained by the guest in question.” And… that’s it, we guess?

Yikes.

See more on this shocking story (below):