Boy treated in Sheffield after becoming impaled on trampoline spring

Jamie Quinlan, aged 12, was left with a metal spring embedded two inches into his back after it shot off 'like a bullet' and lodged into his flesh on Saturday.

His parents say the mechanism catapulted into the youngster's back at about 70 miles an hour, and they fear they "could have lost" him.

The spring was lodged in his back so deeply the teen needed emergency surgery and an overnight stay in Sheffield Children's Hospital.

The youngster told how he was bouncing on the trampoline at his friends' house when he felt a bizarre sensation in his back.

Jamie collapsed in intense shock and pain, before his dad Ian was called to take him to hospital.

Jamie, of Louth in Lincolnshire, said: "When I was in the waiting room there, I was really nervous.

“It took them about 10 minutes to actually get the spring out of my back.

"The doctors said they had never heard of something like this happening with a trampoline.

“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.”

Dad Ian added: “It was a terrible thing to happen, and it really scared me. It could have happened to anyone. Jamie has been so brave.

“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.

“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.

"Children are the most important things in our lives, so people need to be aware of the dangers in their own back garden."