Mother issues warning after daughter, 4, was left with serious spinal injury during trip to soft play

A mother has spoken out after her daughter was left with a severe spinal injury after an accident at a soft play centre. 

Lillie Russell, 4, from Earls Barton in Northamptonshire was sat at the bottom of a slide when another child slid down and crashed into her from behind. 

‘We got a call to say, “I think Lillie’s broken her back but she’s not in pain,” said her mother Amelia Russell, 34, recalling the accident which occured in March 2023.

‘You can’t imagine how stressful it was. It was every parent’s worst nightmare.

‘I looked at her back and thought what on earth has happened? I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. We drove her straight to A&E.’

Later that summer it, doctors explained that the impact had triggered a condition known as ‘accident induced scoliosis’

An estimated two million people in the UK have scoliosis—curvature of the spine— which if left untreated can cause chronic back pain.

The particular type the toddler was diagnosed with—which can also be triggered by car crashes—is when the pressure from a collision causes the abnormal curvature. 

‘You don’t expect your children to come back from soft play with such a severe injury,’ said Ms Russell.

After her diagnosis, Lillie, who is now seven, had three spine stretching procedures under general anaesthetic, one every three months.

Explaining the procedure, Ms Russell said: ‘They put her in a machine to stretch her body and try to straighten out her spine.

‘After the third operation we realised that it was not correcting. The muscles were wasting. She was only four.

‘It was horrific. During these months she was in a permanent brace.’

But sadly, the operations didn’t counter the damage and the curvature worsened over the following two years. 

‘The curvature was getting worse and worse,’ said Ms Russell.

‘The curvature started off at 55 degrees and is now nearly 70 degrees.’

Now Lillie is facing a bigger operation to insert metal rods at London’s Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, which can’t happen until she has put on a little more weight.

After that, her long road to recovery should finally end at 18, with a final spinal fusion operation.

This is a major surgery that helps to correct the curve, which can take a team of highly skilled surgeons up to seven hours to complete, says the NHS. 

It involves connecting two or more bones in the vertebrae so they cannot move independently. Metal rods or screws keep the backbone straight. 

Ms Russell and her husband Dan, 44, who run a roofing firm, are desperate to help other people after witnessing the trauma their daughter has experienced.

They’ve launched an Instagram account chronicling little Lillie’s journey to support and inspire other children living with the condition @lillielivingwithscoliosis.

‘We began the Instagram account because I’m a positive person and so is she,’ said Ms Russell.

‘Lillie is a girly girl who loves unicorns. But this is her nightmare, and mine too. 

‘To watch your daughter noticing herself that she stands differently to her friends is heartbreaking.’

‘She says she’s got a special back.’