Ten-year Omani child dies following five-year coma after fall at amusement park

Rashid Al Nuaimi, Staff Reporter

After a five-year coma due to falling from a climbing game in an amusement park, Ali Furat Al Lawati, a 10-year-old Omani child, passed away following a tragic incident that began with a fun trip in a trampoline park in Oman and ended with him lying in bed for all those years and relying on artificial respiration.

Ali was playing at the time on a climbing game at a recently opened popular climbing hall. As part of the game, Ali was supposed to reach the top and to descend slowly but as the rope attached to him became loose, he fell on his head from a height of about 8 metres.

He was taken immediately by an ambulance to Khawla Hospital in Muscat, where he was found to be suffering from a skull fracture, internal bleeding and other fractures in the jaw, nose and shoulder.

Immediately after the incident, the company said in a statement that it would close its showroom for an independent safety review after a child fell from a climbing tower and sustained multiple head injuries.

The company noted that its initial investigations showed that all equipment was operating properly, though it could not rule out unintentional human error by an employee.

The court that heard the case convicted a female employee at the gym and sentenced her to six months in jail. It also convicted the company and fined it 500 Omani riyals in addition to shutting down its branch in the Sultanate, where the incident occurred, for one year.