Birmingham schoolgirl loses a finger after her ring got caught on a metal fence spike

• Report rights infringement
• published: 28 Apr 2016
• views: 7

A 14-year-old girl had her middle finger amputated after it was almost ripped off when a playground prank went horribly wrong. Lola Bennett was rushed to hospital after her hand slipped on a spiked fence as she tried to retrieve her school bag which had been hung there as a joke. She used a tree stump to reach the strap of her bag but her friendship ring got snagged on the fence and tore her finger apart as friends tried to take off her shoe. Her horrified friends raised the alarm and ambulance crews dashed to the memorial garden in Kingsbury School in Tamworth, Staffordshire, last Friday. She was rushed to Birmingham Children's Hospital but surgeons were unable to save the finger on her left hand, which was broken and had severe nerve damage. Brave Lola then underwent a three-hour operation to have the digit amputated just below her knuckle. Despite her horrific injury, Lola was back in lessons on Monday and said she does not blame her friends for the accident, adding that she was 'just unlucky'. She said: 'I went to get my bag and to reach it I knelt on a tree stump next to the fence. 'As I reached to get it, my ring caught on the fence and that was it. 'It was so painful, I was on gas and air at school. 'The first responders were amazing and the ambulance staff were lovely too, they gave me more gas and air and cut off my ring while I was in the ambulance. 'I'm not blaming anyone, it was all a joke and all happened so fast. I was just unlucky.' Her mother Zoe, 41, is now calling on all schools to carry out renewed safety checks to make sure that such a freak accident cannot happen again. The admin assistant said: 'I hope that this incident makes the school and other schools carry out checks to make sure there aren't any hazards like this. She added: 'The tree stump was over two feet high and shouldn't have been placed next to the fence. 'It's been awful for Lola and the other girls who saw the whole event were traumatised. 'She doesn't blame the girls, they were just messing around like teenagers do. It was just a horrible accident. Her father said she didn't even cry but it might have just been the pure shock of what happened. 'I can't even look at the picture of her finger, it was just hanging off apparently. 'I was so worried about her but she has taken it all in her stride. She was back laughing and joking before we knew it. 'She was really brave and I am proud of how she has handled it all.' Kingsbury School headteacher Martin Clarke said: 'There is an ongoing investigation into the accident, so it would be inappropriate for me to comment at this stage. 'However we take safeguarding very seriously at Kingsbury School and we are fully supporting Lola.' Mr Clarke said that the incident had been reported to the Health and Safety Executive