12-year-old impaled by metal trampoline spring, barely avoids life-threatening injury

Jamie Quinlan was at a friend's house in Louth playing on the trampoline when the accident happened, according to The Louth Leader (Warning: graphic photo in link), which reported the spring hit the boy's back at 70 mph, narrowly missing his spine.

"The spring had come off the trampoline like a bullet. If it had hit elsewhere on Jamie's body, in his head or throat, we could have lost him," the boy's father, Ian Quinlan, told the newspaper.

The spring was embedded more than 2 inches into the boy's back and required an emergency surgery to remove it, the Leader reported.

“When I was in the waiting room there, I was really nervous,” Jamie said.

“Sometimes it still feels like the spring is in my back, but I am getting a lot better and stronger now. I feel relieved that it wasn’t worse.”

Ian Quinlan said it was a very scary situation for the family.

"I want people to be aware of how dangerous trampolines can be if there's no cover on the springs, or if there's a gap," he told the newspaper.

Thousands of people are injured in trampoline accidents every year. In 2014, almost 105,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms for trampoline-related injuries, including broken bones, concussions, sprains and neck injuries, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.