A SIX-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a coma after a huge concrete and marble fireplace fell on her in the family living room.
Alexa-Leigh Blakemore suffered serious injuries including a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain after the devastating accident on September 10.
The youngster remains in a critical but stable condition at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
Her horrified parents Keiran Blakemore and Elle Williams told how they had been begging their landlord to starts repairs in their property before the huge fireplace fell.
They believe it came off the wall due to crumbling plaster – leaving their daughter's life hung in the balance.
The dad explained how he had been on the couch feeding his five-week-old baby when tragedy struck.
"Alexa-Leigh was doing her thing like she normally does, running around and playing like the happy little girl she is," he told the Liverpool Echo.
"I was concentrating on feeding my baby but I could see her out of the corner of my eye."
He said he then heard a "crash" and realised the fireplace had fallen on his little girl.
"There was a lot of blood.
"This fireplace is like a concrete and marble thing and to move it I would have to walk it across the floor, but when it happened I have never lifted anything so quick, I moved it like it was a piece of paper.
"Within 10 seconds I was shouting in the street for help, and the ambulance came within two and a half minutes."
Little Alexa-Leigh was rushed to hospital with a fractured skull, a fractured eye socket, a fractured wrist, and most concerningly, bruising on the brain.
Doctors told the distraught dad that the force of the falling fireplace would have "knocked out a bull".
Her life could have changed forever. The next several months/year is going to be a struggle.
The six-year-old has had fluid drained from her brain as surgeons battle to reduce pressure and now remains in a medically induced coma.
Family friend Katelin Shaw has set up a GoFundMe for the heartbroken family to help them with medical costs.
She told how the "bubbly, happy, loving child" was struck by the fireplace "which had not long become loose from the wall".
Katelin said Alexa "might not be the same little girl" when she wakes up and discussed the struggle her mum Elle, her dad Kieran and two little sisters Gracie and Luna will face.
"She will always be the same Alexa to us, her life could have changed forever. The next several months/year is going to be a struggle," she wrote.
Source: Read Full Article