A BOLTON youngster has been awarded almost £5,000 from a popular children's theme park after an accident which left him in hospital for eight weeks.

James Haydock, now aged five, suffered a badly broken leg during a day out at Gulliver's World at Warrington.

Now he has been awarded compensation for the accident in an out-of-court settlement following a two year legal battle by his family.

But after agreeing to the pay out, James' mother Cathrine hit out at what she described as the "aggressive and obstructive" attitude she had met from the theme park staff after the accident.

She said: "I would never have sued if the staff had admitted they had made mistakes."

The accident happened when James visited Gulliver's World with his grandmother, Pauline Haydock. The family say it took 45 minutes before an ambulance was called. But, Cathrine said: "We sued for damages, not for the after care. We received the pay out because the accident should never have happened in the first place." The youngster was walking along the fortress walls of the theme park, and had started climbing a ladder up to a higher level, when he fell.

Pauline said she first took James to a nearby ice cream parlour for help, but says she was told by the attendant, who pointed her in the vague direction of the first aid room, that she could not leave her kiosk. Pauline then took the toddler in his push chair to the reception area and was directed to the other side of the park to the first aid room.

She says the first aider saw the youngster sitting in his push chair, his badly swollen leg placed on a trolley leg rest, but refused access unless he was taken out of the chair.

She carried the injured youngster into the first aid room and the first aid officer put an ice pack on to the leg which at this point was extremely swollen. Pauline said: "Despite his obvious pain, no one phoned for an ambulance until the manager could be found.

"Once the manager arrived he insisted on emphasising that it was me asking for the ambulance, and not them."

They then had to go back the 500 yards to the reception to call for an ambulance, because there was no phone connected in the first aid room.

James's leg was put in traction. He remained in hospital for eight weeks, then returned home where it took two to three weeks learning to walk again.

There was no one available at Gulliver's World to comment.

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