Sunday, March 30, 2008

Dirty & Dangerous Children's Play Area

I have received this very disturbing email from a friend and I just felt the need to have this reposted for very obvious reasons. We all would need the heads up.
Fast Food places and... All places with ball pits in the children's play area.

One of my sons lost his watch, and was very upset. We dug and dug in those balls, trying to find his watch.

Instead, we found vomit, food, feces, and other stuff I do not want to discuss.

I went to the manager and raised hell. Come to find out, the ball pit is only cleaned out once a month. I have doubts that it is even done that often.

My kids will never play in another ball pit.

Some of you might not be parents, but you may have nieces, nephews, grandchildren, or friends with children.

This will pertain to you too. As I read the following, my heart sank.

I urge each and every one of you to pass this on to as many people as you can. I cannot stress how important this is!

Hi. My name is Lauren Archer, my son Kevin and I lived in Melbourne, Australia.

On October 2nd, 1999 I took my only son to a McDonald's for his 3rd birthday.

After he finished lunch, I allowed him to play in the ball pit. When he started whining later on, I asked him what was wrong, he pointed to the back of his pull-up and simply said "Mommy, it hurts." I couldn't find anything wrong with him at that time. I bathed him when we got home, and it was at that point when I found a welt on his left buttock.

Upon investigating, it seemed as if there was something like a splinter under the welt. I made an appointment to see the doctor the next day, but soon he started vomiting and shaking, then his eyes rolled back into his head. From there, we went to the emergency room. He died later that night.

It turned out that the welt on his buttock was the tip of a hypodermic needle that had broken off inside.

The autopsy revealed that Kevin had died from a heroine overdose. The next week, the police removed the balls from the ball pit. There was rotten food, several hypodermic needles: some full, some used; knives, half-eaten candy, diapers, faeces, and the stench of urine.

Don't think it's just McDonald's either. A little boy had been playing in a ball pit @ a Burger King & started complaining of his legs hurting. He later died too. He was found to have snake bites all over his legs & buttocks. When they cleaned the ball pit they found that there was a snake's nest in the ball pit. He had suffered numerous bites from a very poisonous snake.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard about those poor children a few years ago. I have never let my children play in those play areas becuase of germs and how they always smell,. Thank goodness I never did!

When I read those stories of those children, it broke my heart.

I have always wondered how many other kids have been killed by playing in those that we just have not heard about.