Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Ethan Davies

"She was on a table, it wobbled and her fingers came off" - Girl, 9, loses SIX fingers in freak fly tipping accident

A mum is ‘heartbroken’ after her daughter lost several fingers in a freak accident involving a fly-tip.

Kerry Ratcliffe’s daughter Bella, then aged 8, suffered the life-changing injuries in April, while playing in an alleyway behind the family home on Kestrel Avenue in Clifton, Salford. Mum Kerry, 34, says Bella was ‘making a den’ when she stepped on a garden table which she says was dumped in the ginnel.

“Bella was standing on a table, it wobbled, and her fingers came off,” Kerry told the Manchester Evening News. She added that Bella sadly lost her digits when she tried to grab onto a fence to break her fall.

Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link

How Bella's hands looked after the surgery (Kerry Ratcliffe)

“It’s heartbreaking,” Kerry recalled. “We heard screaming and a neighbour ran over and then my son pushed me back inside and said ‘she has got no fingers’, then I collapsed.

“She was in Wythenshawe Hospital. She was in surgery for 12 hours to reattach. It did not go to plan.”

Despite Bella, now 9, ‘adapting really well’, and returning to school in what Kerry says is a ‘massive step’, the mum-of-five says she is ‘still at a loss as to what’s happened’. Since the accident, Kerry has moved her family to Winton, also in Salford, to be closer to her family.

Bella is now on the mend (Kerry Ratcliffe)

One day, Bella will have a prosthetic hand, Kerry added. However, the full-time-mum is now calling on the authorities to make sure the alleyway — which neighbours claim is ‘hot spot for fly-tipping’ — is secured.

“There’s a private entrance with iron gates,” Kerry said. “They told us that they had cut off the locks. Then it became a hotspot for fly tipping.

“The gates are always open. The neighbours said they have complained about them for years.”

The garden table which 'wobbled', part of the 'fly-tip' (Kerry Ratcliffe)

Following the incident, Salford council confirmed the land is owned by ForHousing, a housing association. Its executive director of homes said that the organisation was ‘extremely sorry’ to hear about Bella’s accident.

“The security fence at the rear of the homes at Kestrel Avenue was put in place several years ago after local neighbours raised concerns about anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping in the area,” Nigel Sedman added in a statement. “In April, a neighbour reported that this incident had taken place, and we immediately visited the site to check it was safe. We will continue to offer support and work with the local community.”

READ NEXT:

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.