Girl's fingers caught in supermarket conveyor belt The New Paper | Sun, Dec 04, 2011 PARENTS, keep an eye on your young children when paying for groceries at supermarkets. Last Saturday, a toddler got her fingers stuck in the conveyor belt at a payment counter, causing a cut that required three stitches. The two-year-old was injured at the Giant Hypermarket in Tampines while she was with her parents. Her mother wrote to citizen journalism website Stomp earlier this week to advise parents to watch their children around the payment counters. "It was all because of our negligence, but I really did not know that there is a possible danger at the conveyor belt," she wrote. "I will definitely be more careful next time when I take my child out again." The mother, who called herself Li Foong, said the girl was standing in a shopping trolley while her father loaded items on to the conveyor belt. The child tried to follow her father's actions and a finger on her left hand slipped into the side of the conveyor belt. Ms Li Foong wrote: "My husband pulled her hand out immediately. It was bleeding badly and I could see the exposed flesh of my child's fingers. "The cut on the fourth finger was quite deep and it was about 3.5cm long. The last finger also had a deep cut that was about 1cm long." A spokesman for Giant told The New Paper in an e-mail that the the duty manager was alerted and a grocery supervisor, Mr Nordin Ahmad, went to help the family. Mr Nordin has worked in Giant for five years and is certified by the Singapore Red Cross Society to give first aid. Bandage fingers The girl's father took the first aid items Mr Nordin supplied and bandaged her fingers. The family then rushed to the accident and emergency department of Changi General Hospital (CGH). The girl received three stitches on the fourth finger and a special glue was used to seal the wound on the last finger, wrote her mother. She expressed her gratitude for Mr Nordin's fast response and the care showed by the nurse and doctor at CGH. Giant's spokesman said it was the first such accident in the hypermarket. She said: "Our staff is communicating with the parents to follow up on her condition." The hypermarket's maintenance manager and work safety officer are reviewing its checkout counters to ensure all necessary safety precautions are in place. She added: "Customer safety is paramount at Giant and we strive to provide a family-safe environment at all our hypermarkets. "We would encourage all shoppers to exercise safety precautions in the store. We discourage shoppers from letting their children stand in the trolley or to run around the store. "Children should also not be left unattended in the hypermarket." Dr Kevin Teh, the medical director of Singapore Lipo, Body & Face Centre, told TNP that supermarkets are generally safe. He felt there was no need for additional precautions. The problem is that the fingers of children, being smaller, may get past safety devices designed for adult hands, he said. Dr Teh, who was formerly in the National University Hospital's hand and reconstructive microsurgery department, said the girl's fingers probably got caught in the small gap between the edge of the payment counter and the rubber belt. "The girl could have sustained a shearing injury, when the skin gets pulled in different directions and a tear occurs." Dr Teh, who has a two-year-old son, said he had a similar incident on Wednesday night when his son wanted to be helpful and placed an item on the belt. "I got a momentary pang of panic as he tried to grope around the conveyor blindly. "Thankfully, the belt wasn't moving at that moment and no harm was done." Dr Teh advised parents not to let children place items on the conveyor belts until they are older. This article was first published in The New Paper.