Little girl rushed to hospital after 'horrific' soft play accident

A four-year-old girl suffered a severe injury following a seemingly harmless accident at a soft play centre. Little Lillie Russell was at the bottom of a slide when another child slid down and crashed into her from behind. This unfortunate incident triggered a condition known as 'accident induced scoliosis' which progressively worsened until her spine was bent at a shocking 70 degrees. She has since undergone three procedures under general anaesthetic in an attempt to straighten her spine - but none of them were successful. Now, three years on, she has to wear a back brace for 22 hours a day and requires surgery to insert metal rods into her spine - a procedure that can't be carried out until she is older. After this, her lengthy journey to recovery should finally conclude at 18, with a final spinal fusion operation. Her mum, Amelia Russell, 34, from Earls Barton in Northamptonshire, said: "You don't expect your children to come back from soft play with such a severe injury. "We received a call saying 'I think Lillie's broken her back but she's not in any pain'. You can't fathom how stressful it was. It was every parent's worst nightmare. I was told that after it happened, she got up and carried on playing. "I looked at her back and thought, 'what on earth has happened? I couldn't believe what I was seeing. We drove her straight to A&E." After finally receiving her diagnosis in the summer of 2023, Lillie underwent three spine stretching procedures under general anaesthetic - one every three months. However, these procedures were unsuccessful, and she now faces a much larger operation, under the care of medical professionals at London's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, to insert metal rods. Her mother, who also has two other children, Albie, five and Rosie, nine months, with husband Dan, 44, explained: "Under general anaesthetic 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 the curvature was getting worse and worse. The curvature started off at 55 degrees and is now nearly 70 degrees." Amelia and her husband Dan, who together run a successful roofing firm, were busy expanding their business into a multi-million-pound turnover during all the hospital appointments too. She said: "It was an incredibly stressful time, and we didn't have a holiday for a year. Thanks to Staysure we managed to secure insurance and headed to Turkey for some much-needed family time last year. "Staysure were the only company willing to insure us so we could go on holiday. Before the accident, we had typical family holidays, we took them to Disneyland Paris and it was great. "We never thought we'd find a company that would help us because it's quite complex. We're going to Abu Dhabi with them in January, which really helps the whole family at a time when we are in limbo, waiting for Lillie to get to the right weight for the next operation." The couple are now eager to assist others after witnessing the trauma their seven-year-old daughter, Lillie, has endured. They have started an Instagram account @lillielivingwithscoliosis to document their journey and inspire other children living with the condition.Amelia shared: "We began the Instagram account because I'm a positive person and so is she. 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." Sophie Davis, from Staysure, commented: "Lillie is a real inspiration. She has already faced many challenges and has chosen to tell her story to help and support other children and families living with scoliosis. "We're really pleased to be able to help and provide her and her family the protection they need to keep on enjoying family holidays. In the last three years we've covered over 7,000 children living with a wide range of medical conditions from asthma to heart disease, so we know how important it is for families to feel safe and protected when they go abroad."