When Darin Nielsen answered a call from his wife on Monday afternoon telling him that his daughter had been involved in an incident at Cultus Lake Waterpark, he thought he was going to have to drive out there and pick her up.
“Then she said, ‘No, they’re at the hospital’,” Nielsen told Global News.
“But didn’t have a lot of information. Said there was an electrical shock. And there were burns.”
His 13-year-old daughter Issabella was one of 12 students injured in an incident at the waterpark on Monday. She was taken by ground ambulance to Abbotsford Hospital, but two students had serious injuries and were airlifted to BC Children’s Hospital.
“When I got there, my daughter was just being taken away for an X-ray,” Nielsen said.
“They had done blood work on her, and were just waiting for the results. And so the trauma team had come in and evaluated her and determined that she needed to stay overnight for further observation.”
He added that Issabella was in good spirits, which was a huge relief.
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“She told me that they were lined up for a ride and they were touching a handrail and they got shocked touching the handrail,” Nielsen said.
“And they talked about some of the kids who fell unconscious and their hands were stuck to the handrail and so she said it was quite scary.”
He said Issabella’s leg was touching the rail, so she didn’t have her hands on the rail and was able to get away after receiving the shock. She had a red mark on her leg and numbness from her knee to her ankle.
“For the other kids, as the concern of the hospital staff and doctors, were one hand or two hands, how long were they on the railing for, which indicated how much more concerning… like the two students who were airlifted, showing how serious their injuries were to be sent to Children’s Hospital and it’s my understanding that they had both hands on there and were stuck on the railing,” Nielsen added.
Issabella was one of the 10 children injured who were on a field trip from Minnekhada Middle School in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Nielsen said the support from the school, teachers, hospital staff, and waterpark staff has been amazing.
“When I saw the teachers there, my daughter said they came in the ambulance with them and the support the Minnekhada teachers offered was tremendous, not just to the students but to the family when we arrived and so it was very comforting, so it’s much appreciated and they stayed for many hours after the incident at the hospital.”
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