Mum nearly had to have foot amputated after it ‘snapped off’ while she was trampolining

A mum has warned of the dangers of trampolines after she nearly had to have her foot amputated when it “snapped off” in a horror accident.

Victoria McDonald, 34, was bouncing between trampolines at an indoor centre with her son, sister and nephew when she felt a "slight twinge" in her right ankle.

She looked down and her ankle was hanging off her leg because she had shattered all the bones in the joint.

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Medics discovered she had torn every ligament, ripped every tendon and broken three bones in her ankle - leading to surgeons advising amputation from the ankle down.

However, her foot was saved after they "sucked out" the bone fragments, with torn tendons and ligaments sewn back into place and pins inserted to reattach the bones.

One of the joints in Victoria's heel was also removed during the five and half hour operation.

The mum-of-one spent weeks with a cage strapped around her leg, and she still can not run, drive for long distances or wear anything but flat shoes.

‘Blood was all over the trampoline’

Administrator Victoria from Harrogate, north Yorkshire, is speaking out to warn people to be careful on trampolines.

She said: "I felt like a twinge – like if you’ve ever fallen off a curb and you get that twinge – it felt like that.

“I turned over and my leg was literally attached by the skin on the left hand side of my leg.

“If I tried to move it would have ripped off - blood was all over the trampoline.

“It was surreal - I didn’t think it was real and then my son started screaming. There were kids still jumping on the trampoline I was sat on.

“I didn’t realise how many deaths happen at trampoline parks – how many injuries happen there.

“Some of my friends have trampolines in their gardens and my son won’t go near one. If their kids are jumping, I can’t watch them either – it gives me such anxiety.

“When you do go to a trampoline park you sign a waiver to go in, so you get no compensation.

“If you go on to a no win no fee page – all of them refuse to take on trampoline parks.”

Surgeons debated whether they should amputate

The injury occurred while jumping from one trampoline to another towards the end of the session, with her son.

Staff rushed over and an ambulance was called.

Victoria was rushed to York Hospital, where numerous surgeons debated whether it was too late to save her foot. But eventually a decision was made to operate.

She said: “They took X-rays and sent them to five orthopaedic surgeons. Three came back and said there was no saving it – was too damaged and they said to amputate.

“They tried multiple attempts to get it together – it took five and a half hours. I came out and had the frame on – they then said they’d never seen anything like that.

“Every ligament was torn, tendon ripped, they had to suction out two bones as I’d shattered them and there was no fixing them.”

‘I’ve got a walking stick I need to take everywhere’

Victoria then had an agonising seven weeks with the frame strapped to her leg – and would only find out if she was keeping her foot after it was removed.

“They said after seven weeks if my foot collapsed there was nothing they could do but fully amputate,” she said.

“So, I had to live with that for seven weeks.”

Thankfully the surgery succeeded, but Victoria still had to endure months of pain and rehabilitation and is still limited in what she can do.

She said: “It’s just so painful. It will be two years in October, and I’m still so limited in what I can do. It’s just so limiting.

“I’ve got a walking stick I need to take everywhere.

“I was very overweight a few years ago and worked hard to lose it to be able to be more active and do more things with my son.

“But now I’m limited – we can’t go for days out, as a couple of hours in, I can’t walk anymore."

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