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 smartphones.
During a visit to the amusement park in Mykolaiv, Ukraine with her mother, Anna, young Valeria had the horrifying accident on Saturday, May 13. Reports suggest that she inadvertently hung herself after getting caught in the cords in the inflatable bouncy castle. When Anna didn’t hear her daughter’s playful giggles, she approached the park staff, concerned about Valeria’s safety.
Allegations emerged in local media suggesting that the staff members, whose duty was to oversee the children’s safety, were looking at their mobile devices at the time of the incident. After discovering her daughter’s motionless body, the distressed mother sought help from the staff members who reportedly fled the site.
Natalia Kuchynska, a close friend of the family, said that Anna initially thought that Valeria had passed out due to the heat and made desperate attempts to revive her.
Witnesses at the park alerted emergency services while making frantic attempts to resuscitate the child by sprinkling water on her and administering CPR.
Kuchynska said there were no medical personnel present at the site to administer immediate help, which led to someone rushing to a nearby dental clinic in a desperate attempt to get professionals to examine the child. They tried reviving Valeria using ammonia and light, but their efforts proved futile. When the paramedics arrived, they pronounced Valeria dead.
In the aftermath of the incident, Sergiy Shaikhet, the Mykolaiv Oblast region’s chief of police, said that preliminary investigations suggest Valeria’s death resulted from suffocation due to her entanglement in the loops on the bouncy castle’s wall.
In connection with the ongoing investigation, authorities have taken the 45-year-old bouncy castle owner into custody. If convicted, she may face a jail term of up to eight years.