oohh.. and there goes the head.

scenario:a teenage boy was playing with his 2 yr-old cousin, and by playing, he meant throwing her high up in the air ("oh look, ur flying!). catch. up in the air again. catch. the girl squeals. up in the air again..higher now..
and... tang!..slosh!.. there goes her head!
ok.. i'm exaggerating.. her head didnt fly off.. but she did sustain a deep laceration wound to her head, after being hit by the blades of a whirring ceiling fan that was just inches from her head!
so with blood covering half her face and she screaming in pain, she was rushed to the hospital by the whole family.
examination showed that she also had a depressed skull fracture, and was bleeding into the layers covering her brain.

obviously this isnt the 1st case of a child sustaining head injury from the blades of a ceiling fan. we see quite a number of this preventable injury at the emergency dept. and they get them through different ways too.. from jumping up and down on the bed, from jumping down from an upper bunk of a bunk bed, from being thrown in the air by an adult... and then .. tang!..slosh.. there goes the head.

interestingly the other day when i was seeing the 2 yr-old girl, there were different comments made from the staff as they hover around:
staff 1: uih.. that's why-lah, cannot throw the kids in the house, gotta do it outside the house, out in the open area. no ceiling fans there!
staff 2: what was the speed of the fan.. laju sangat kot?!
staff 3: must be the ceiling of their house is too low.. that's why can hit the fan!
staff 4: no-lah..not safe to use ceiling fans.. we should all just use air-cond only!


so i had to tell them: umm..no.. the one important lesson to be learnt here is.. NOT to throw a kid up in the air..like anywhere, eVer (Yup, i even strained on my V there!)
we live in hot malaysia..and not everyone can afford air-conditioning, and so it's totally okay to have a ceiling fan running at top speed i think, as long as you dont throw a kid up to its rotating blades!
even if you were doing it outside, or you dont have a ceiling fan, and your ceiling's real high.. what if you throw a kid up in the air, and u slip and/or couldnt catch the kid back?
maybe..there goes the head, and/or neck, and/or arms, and/or legs .. you get the picture.