After Her Son Was Injured, This Mom Is Speaking Out Against Trampoline Parks

After her 3-year-old broke his leg at a trampoline park, Florida mom Kaitlin Hill spoke out.

Last month — as Hill documented in a viral Facebook post — she and her husband took her children, including son Colton, to the indoor Sky Zone trampoline park near Tampa Bay. However, things took an unfortunate turn when young Colton came down awkwardly on his leg, breaking his femur.

“His feet hit the mat, and almost instantly his knees buckled down, and he just let out the worst scream that you could ever have heard from a child,” Hill told ABC.

With her son in a body cast from the waist down, Kaitlin Hill researched information about children using trampolines. She discussed the issue with Colton’s doctors, and what she discovered shocked her.

“Come to find out, according to the America Academy of Pediatrics and the America Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons ‘children under the age of 6 should never use a trampoline.’ This is due to the fact that their fragile bones are not meant to withstand the repetitive pressure from jumping,” she wrote on Facebook. “We had no idea and were shocked to find this out from our pediatric orthopedic surgeon during Colton’s hospital stay.”

Colton Hill’s trampoline injury is part of a growing trend in the U.S. According to a 2015 news report, “Nearly 100,000 trampoline-related injuries occur each year: 83,665 in 2013 and 94,900 in 2012, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Additionally, 22 trampoline-related deaths occurred between 2000 and 2009, according to the CPSC.”

Hill ended her Facebook post by explaining why she chose to share her son’s story.

“We share this with you today to spread awareness that these facilities are specifically advertising for Toddler Time, when in fact toddlers should be no where near trampolines,” she wrote. “We hope by sharing his story it will prevent a child and their family from experiencing the trauma and heartbreak associated with trampoline injuries in young children.”

Kaitlin Hill’s Facebook post quickly took on a life of its own, and has generated over 50,000 comments and a staggering 276,000 likes as of July 14. The story has also been picked up by several major media outlets, including ABC who interviewed Hill for their website and Good Morning America.

In reaction to the attention that Hill’s story is getting, Sky Zone released a statement that read, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured child and his family. Guest safety is our top priority, and we are investigating how an incident of this nature might have occurred.”

The park also released a second statement, specifically to ABC, calling into question some details of Hill’s story.

“The recent incident involving a minor at Sky Zone Tampa did not occur the way it has been portrayed in the media,” they wrote. “We have made the Guest’s family aware of our findings and we are providing their representatives with video footage of the incident. Out of respect to the family, we do not have plans to release the footage publicly at this time.”