Warning: This post contains graphic images and content.
A four-year-old boy was left seriously injured after a glass panel in the shower exploded without warning while he was showering himself.
Cruz Tilbury, from Perth in Australia, was taking a shower in his mother’s en-suite bathroom, while his mum Megan laid out his pyjamas for him on her bed.
Megan told Radio 6PR that she heard a bang behind her and was horrified when she saw what had happened.
“I hear a massive explosion and turn around, and he is covered in blood and glass,” she said.
The young boy was left with severe injuries and required emergency surgery when he got to the hospital.
“He got lacerations to both arms, his head and his chest, muscle damage in the arm, the tendon in his finger,” Megan explained.
The young boy is lucky to be alive considering the severity of the incident.
“The plastic surgeon said he was so lucky that’s all that happened, because if it got inside of his arm, the ambulance wouldn’t have made it there in time," Megan revealed.
Cruz was left with a severed tendon in his finger, stitches in his head and eyebrow, and both of his arms are bandaged from the elbow to the wrist.
Megan and Cruz were both traumatised by the horrific event. Megan says her son didn’t hit off the glass, and there was nothing inside the shower which could have caused the glass to explode in this manner.
A spokesman for the Building Commission told Megan the explosion could have been due to poor workmanship or a faulty product. The Building Commission is now investigating the event.
Young Cruz will have to attend follow-up appointments with a plastic surgeon, to assess what ongoing treatment he may need.
The glass shower panel was installed by the same glazier who installed the family’s glass pool fence, which also exploded. The glazier offered to replace the panel for free but later told Megan the panels weren’t covered by a warranty.
Megan has since received the opinion of experts, who told her that the glass panels should not have shattered in this manner. The expert told her that the pool fence ought to have shattered into tiny pieces but instead, Megan said it broke into “shards of glass bigger than an adult’s hand”.
Megan is now warning other parents to be aware of the dangers poorly fitted or faulty glass panels can pose to children and adults alike.
