More on KentOnline
A young girl was left with bruising after her arm got stuck in a lift door.
Adam De Lobel, 38, of Dickens Road, Gravesend, was on a shopping trip to Asda in Thames Way with his four children and had used the lift near the store’s entrance.
Upon reaching the bottom, his four-year-old daughter Ava-Rose got her arm stuck in the outside edge of the door, which has left her with a nasty bruise.
Her father explained: “The door had started to open and she got her arm wedged.
“She was moaning and my other daughter was really hysterical.
“I pushed the alarm between 15 and 20 times and no one came to help. The door kept banging against her arm and I managed to put all my weight on it to get her arm out.”
Mr De Lobel headed straight for the customer service desk inside the store, where a member of staff called for first aid and the manager. Staff also offered to call an ambulance.
While an on-staff first aider arrived quickly, Mr De Lobel claims the manager displayed a lack of compassion of his daughter’s predicament.
“The manager didn’t come out until 15 minutes after he was called and I asked him ‘is my daughter’s injury not a concern to you then?’,” he said.
“Eventually we got taken into the security room to talk about it and not once was my daughter offered a chair or a glass of water.
“About 10 minutes later we were finally brought a bag of frozen peas for her arm.”
Ava’s arm is painful to the touch and her father says she now has a fear of going into lifts.
He continued: “If you touch it she says it hurts and she has been keeping it held up as if it’s in a sling.
“She’s alright in herself but she’s scared about going in lifts now. I took her to the hospital and got her some medicine and they told us to keep an eye on her for the next few days.”
An Asda spokesman said: “Customer safety and wellbeing is of utmost importance to us. Our store colleagues moved swiftly to support the customer and offer first aid.
“We’d like to reassure all our customers that facilities in store such as the lifts are maintained on a regular basis.”