Almost every child loves the thrill and excitement of a carnival ride.
But fairgoers got the surprise of their lives when a seven-year-old girl’s prosthetic leg suddenly broke while she was on the rocking chairs.
Her grandmother, who was filming from the ground below, unwittingly captured the moment when the little girl’s leg flew into the air as the swings lifted.
“Be careful, be careful!” The little girl’s mother, Tatum, is heard screaming from the carnival ride.
Fortunately for the people watching below, no one was hurt, but the prosthesis fell to the ground with an almighty thud.
“My daughter’s leg malfunctioned at the fair and she fell off the swing,” Tatum shared in her viral video, which has now been viewed nearly five million times. “I’m just so thankful that everyone was okay.”
A seven-year-old girl’s leg is severed at the carnival
The mother of four said she was behind her daughter on the ride when the accident happened.
“She wears a prosthesis, it has a pin and lock system that has a pin that locks into the leg,” she explained.
“Her leg is over a year old and for a child her age, that’s overdue for a new leg.
“The pin and lock mechanism malfunctioned and because the pin didn’t lock, it came off when the ride started to rotate.”
Incredibly, the leg didn’t have a scratch on it, with Tatum saying it’s still “alive and kicking.”
“I’m so glad no one was hurt by my daughter’s prosthetic leg”
Tatum was horrified by suggestions that the foot may have been deliberately dropped by an adult for a funny video.
“I would never put people at the fair (at risk), number one, but most of all my baby was on the ground with mom recording, my pregnant sister and my brother-in-law were all down watching we were on the ride “, she says in a follow-up video.
“So the theory that an adult dropped a foot without knowing where said foot was going to land … no that didn’t happen.”
She also added that her daughter took off her leg for every trip she took for the rest of the day.
The seven-year-old was born with fibular hemimelia
Tatum went on to say that her little girl was born with a rare condition called fibular hemimelia, where more than half of the bones in her right leg were missing.
“She wasn’t a candidate for any leg-lengthening surgery, so they did an amputation,” Tatum explains.
“We are in the process of making a new leg for her right now as she has to do a leg and there will be no leg trips as we will be removing them from now on!”
Although fibular hemimelia is not believed to be genetic, Tatum’s two-year-old daughter was also born with the condition in both legs.
She now raises awareness of the condition and says her daughter is happy, healthy and proud of her “slopy” leg.
“You don’t need to (feel sorry for me) because this is great,” she smiles, pointing to her leg.
