A Calgary mother is telling other parents to keep their kids close after her two-year-old girl was left partially paralyzed by falling onto a drinking glass.
Jaclyn Derks, 2, was playing in a makeshift fort in her grandparents’ living room last month when she fell onto a water glass that was sitting on the floor.
The glass broke and its shards cut deep into Jaclyn’s neck, cutting her spinal cord and leaving her partially paralyzed on her left side.
The girl’s mom, Kayla Rudichuk, says she was out getting groceries when she got the terrible call that her child had been severely injured.
“I could just hear the panic in her voice. She told me Jaclyn was being rushed to the hospital,” Rudichuk recalls.
Rudichuk says she thought she was going to lose her daughter.
“I've never seen so much blood, so much pain,” she adds.
According to Rudichuk, doctors said the injury was extremely rare, with only one other known case, in Turkey.
A month later, Rudichuk is “amazed” by her little girl’s progress and doctors are hopeful she will walk again, but they are both still adjusting.
“The hardest part is honestly physio,” she says. “That's when I get the most emotional because even though it's so positive and so good, it's a realization that this is what the rest of my life is going to be like.”
Rudichuk has been forced to take a leave from work. Her friends, including Amanda Lane, have rallied together to raise money on GoFundMe.com to help cover costs.
“She’s been always there for us so we just did what we do and we come together and help Kayla out,” Lane said.
Rudichuk says she hopes other parents will be careful after hearing her story. “Pay as close attention as you can to your babies and keep them close because you never know what can happen,” she said.
With a report from CTV Calgary’s Jaclyn Brown
