A western Sydney mom is looking to change the safety measures in retail stores after an incident nearly left her two-year-old blinded.
Maureen Ahluwalia was with her daughter Amaira and sister-in-law at her local Blacktown Westpoint shopping center on July 8 when the incident occurred.
Ahluwalia said her daughter was walking right beside her – as she commonly does – when the scary incident happened.
“She’s just turned and the rack hook’s gone in her eye. I tried to calm her down, literally her eyelid was inside out,” she told NewsWire.
“I saw when she opened her eye that there’s blood coming into it.”
Ahluwalia’s sister-in-law advised taking Amaira to Specsavers in the shopping center, who took her in immediately and gave some relieving news.
“They said she didn’t scratch her cornea, she was very lucky to miss it by less than a millimetre. If it was, she would have had some damage to her vision or even blindness.”
After repeated requests, Ahluwalia said she finally received a call from Harris Scarfe more than six days later, a courtesy call from the risk management team.
They also declined to provide the CCTV footage.
“They weren’t interested in looking into why this happened or if we need to change our hooks or anything … it wasn’t a priority for them.”
Left with a growing blood clot, Amaira eventually recovered, but not before her mother came across a string of similar incidents that shocked her.
Kmart, Target and Rebel Sport were among the first to respond back in 2020, adding soft rubbers and plastics over the ends of apparel hooks, however, Ahluwalia is now putting a different question to shops.
“Why are we not doing more? And why do these hooks still exist at toddler height?
“Kids have lost their vision over it, kids have ended up in hospital, with permanent damage.
“That’s when I knew this is a real problem, this is not a parent’s fault. It’s is beyond that.”
The mother has since begun a NSW parliamentary petition to adjust the safety standards of retail fixtures in Australia, requiring 20,000 votes to be heard in parliament.
The petition will be presented by Labor MP for Blacktown Stephen Bali, who has backed the move.
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While she has received messages of encouragement, Ahluwalia has also been met with backlash from users online claiming the incident was a personal fault.
“Keep your kids in the car. A lot safer there,” one user responded.
“Preventable with a parent doing their job” another claimed.
But she has backed her stance, citing her plea to push for better safety standards for children.
“It’s the same as having a fence around the pool. Why do we do that? Why do have booster seats for kids? These are all safety measures to prevent what can possibly happen,” she said.
“This is not about paying attention to your kids. My daughter was two steps away from me.
“I’d never spoken about compensation, it’s not something I’m interested in.
“But no money could ever bring back my daughter’s eye if she had lost it.”
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