A New Jersey family’s vacation turned into tragedy when a shard of badminton racket broke off and pierced the 6-year-old daughter’s skull, killing her.
Little Lucy Morgan died Wednesday, four days after a shocking accident on what was supposed to be a beautiful getaway on a lake in Maine.
Morgan’s father, Jesse Morgan, pastor at Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, said the tragedy occurred Saturday as the Morgan family of six was spending their final day at a rental home in Limerick, Maine.
“We were having a quick lunch by the lake and the kids decided to play badminton in the front yard. Bethany and I were lounging in the back and we heard screaming,” Morgan said. I wrote about it on my blog. It was titled “Disaster Strikes.”
“A freak accident saw her racket break on a downward swing, sending sharp shrapnel into Lucy’s skull as she sat on the sideline, causing horrific injuries.”
According to Maine State Police, Lucy was breathing but unresponsive when paramedics rushed her to a local hospital, where the injured girl was then transported by helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
She was quickly rushed to the operating room, where surgeons removed part of her skull to relieve the pressure, but Lucy went into cardiac arrest on the operating table.
Luckily, doctors were able to resuscitate the little girl, but Lucy had lost all brain function and the ability to breathe on her own.
Doctors warned the girl’s chances of recovery were “highly unlikely” – Ms Morgan explained that the racket shaft had penetrated deep into her brain, causing immediate arterial bleeding.
The girl died from her injuries at about 4 a.m. Wednesday, a day after she was expected to die.
“After stopping at Wendy’s and ordering just five, I wished I could see Lucy munching on chicken nuggets in the rearview mirror,” Morgan wrote of the long, 350-mile drive home to New Jersey without her.
Morgan said Lucy’s brothers, Silas, 10, Shiloh, eight, and Atticus, four, have had a hard time understanding the loss and are “blaming themselves and taking it very hard” with the tragedy.
Maine State Police determined that Lucy was playing with her 10-year-old brother when the aluminum shaft of the racket came off its wooden handle, striking the girl in the head and penetrating her skull.
Her funeral will be held at her father’s church on June 15th.
