Metal Trampoline Spring Pierces Boy's Back 'Like a Bullet' in Freak Accident

Ian and Sandra Quinlan say they ‘could have lost’ their son Jamie (12) after the horrific incident on Saturday afternoon, which saw a large metal spring break off the trampoline ‘mid-bounce’ and catapult into Jamie’s back at around 70 miles an hour. Ten hours later, the spring war surgically removed. Jamie is fine now.

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Published: 9/5/2019, 2:13:09 PM EDT

Metal Trampoline Spring Pierces Boy's Back 'Like a Bullet' in Freak Accident — A closeup photo of a trampoline and its springs. (Schanin/Pixabay)

What started out as a playful afternoon ended in a scene from a horror movie after a trampoline spring catapulted into the back of a 12-year-old boy while he was jumping on it.

The accident happened when Jamie Quinlan was playing on the trampoline in a friend's backyard on Aug. 31. The boy, from Louth, U.K., suddenly felt a "strange and heavy" sensation in his back, then excruciating pain, before falling to the ground in agony, reported the Louth Leader.

The boy's father Ian Quinlan rushed to the yard after being notified of the freak accident and took his son to Louth Hospital where the child received medication and x-rays before being taken to another hospital via ambulance.

There, he received emergency surgery.

“When I was in the waiting room there, I was really nervous," Jamie told Louth Leader.

Doctors at Sheffield Children’s Hospital removed the metal spring, which was nearly 2.5 inches deep, more than 10 hours after it pierced into his back at a reported 70 mph.

“It took them about 10 minutes to actually get the spring out of my back," Jamie said. "The doctors in Louth and Sheffield said they had never heard of something like this happening with a trampoline."

The boy told Louth Leader that he sometimes still feels like the metal is in his back. "But I am getting a lot better and stronger now. I feel relieved that it wasn’t worse."

Jamie spent the night at the hospital before being discharged the next day.

His father Ian called the accident terrible and frightening, saying, “It could have happened to anyone. Jamie has been so brave."

"The spring had come off the trampoline like a bullet. If it had hit elsewhere on Jamie’s body, in his head or throat, we could have lost him," Ian told the outlet, adding that family's should be aware of the dangers in their own backyards.

Idaho Girl Loses ‘Half of Her Skull’ in Freak Accident

In July, an Idaho girl was in critical condition after a freak accident left her with just “half of her skull,” and her family said in August they planned to take her off life support and donate her organs.

Shaylyn Bergeson, 9, was playing in the backyard of her home in north Rexburg when she accidentally fell out of a tree and landed on a piece of rebar that punctured the left side of her brain.

Emergency responders rushed to the scene and airlifted her to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.

Nine-year-old Shaylyn Bergeson (C), together with her mother, Jesi Bergeson (L) and father, Kurt Bergeson. (MEDICAL EXPENSES FOR SHAYLYN BERGESON via GoFundMe) — Nine-year-old Shaylyn Bergeson (C), together with her mother, Jesi Bergeson (L) and father, Kurt Bergeson. MEDICAL EXPENSES FOR SHAYLYN BERGESON via GoFundMe

She was then taken to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City where she underwent emergency surgery, reported East Idaho News.

“She had a craniotomy, and they removed half of her skull to relieve the pressure,” Shaylyn’s mother, Jesi Bergeson, told the outlet.

According to an update on a GoFundMe page set up by her family to help cover medical expenses, Shaylyn was given a “50/50 chance” that she would survive the surgery.

However, the 9-year-old’s family confirmed in a statement on the page that they took her off life support to donate her organs so that Shaylyn could "bless as many lives as possible" through the tragedy.

Epoch Times reporter Isabel van Brugen contributed to this report