[Warning: This story contains graphic details and might be disturbing to some of our readers]
Edmonton mom Ashley Field called it "the scariest night of her life."
In a Facebook post, Field recounted the how her six-year-old daughter needed more than 37 stitches after her leg was split open by a metal peg during a trip to the park earlier this week.
Field brought Kennedy and son Peyton to Westview Village Park where a makeshift water slide had been laid down by Green Shack program staff, the Edmonton Journal reports.
The program regularly hosts activities for kids ages six to 12 during the summer. That day organizers sprayed water on a blue tarp that was nailed into the grass with metal pegs. About a dozen kids were already lined up taking turns, Field writes.
"Kennedy went about three times and on her fourth time I watched her slide let out a huge scream and jar herself on the slip and slide," she writes in a Facebook post.
Field, who is training to become a nurse, raced over to her daughter and along with another staff member, applied pressure to the wound, while someone else called an ambulance.
"I knew it was bad enough because her bone was exposed."
“I knew it was bad enough because her bone was exposed, the tissue had actually started to butterfly out of the wound,” Field told the Journal.
Kennedy's leg had been caught on a metal peg that wasn't properly pounded into the ground, and it tore a Y-shaped gash about 15 centimetres long and 10 centimetres wide from her ankle to her knee, Field writes on Facebook.
The six-year-old was rushed to Stollery Children’s Hospital where she was stitched up late Tuesday night. Since the ordeal, the Edmonton Sun reports that Kennedy has been dealing with mixed emotions and shame over what she calls her "Frankenstein leg."
She will be on bed rest for the next 20 days and could deal with severe scarring and potentially more surgery.
"I assumed it was safe because the city workers had set it up and other kids were already playing."
A photo of the bent metal spike was posted online and Ashley urged parents to take caution if their children are participating in any public activities.
"I assumed it was safe because the city workers had set it up and other kids were already playing," Field wrote. "I wish I could say it was an accident but after seeing the bent metal spikes they used it was complete negligence on the city's end."
According to the Edmonton Sun, the city is investigating the incident and in the meantime has banned all water slide activities from their Green Shack programs.