These shocking pictures show how a three-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after a fireplace came tumbling down on top of her.
Lexi-Mai Ruddick was drenched in blood gushing from her skull, with a closed eye and a white bandage wrapped around her forehead, after she was toppled by rubble.
Lexi-Mai’s mum, Samantha Ruddick, 22, said her daugher “could easily have died” after she reached up to touch the top of the mantlepiece on Sunday evening.
Samantha, from Hull, East Yorks., said: “We were in the living room when Lexi-Mai climbed on the fireplace and reached up to the mantelpiece on Sunday evening.
Samantha added: “Suddenly, it all fell down on top of her. She was screaming. I couldn’t lift the fireplace off her and had to go and get a neighbour to help me.
“She suffered a really big gash just above her eye. Her face was covered in blood. Had the fireplace landed on her throat she could easily have died.”
Lexi-Mai, has since recovered from her injuries, barring a black eye and a nasty cut to her forehead, but doesn’t remember what happened to her on Sunday evening.
Samantha said: “Lexi-Mai is OK now, but she doesn’t remember a thing about it.
“When we came home she asked me what happened to the fireplace. I didn’t want to tell her what happened so I said I broke it.”
Samantha said her one-year-old son, Elliott, narrowly escaped being engulfed by the tumbling rubble.
Samantha, who is pregnant with her third child, added: “My son was also standing close to the fireplace and it was very lucky he wasn’t also hurt. Being pregnant, I didn’t really need this stress.”
The family live in accommodation rented from a private landlord and have contact the property owner about the fireplace.
Samantha said: “I immediately contacted the landlord who has promised to look into it and have the fireplace fixed.
“But it was worrying that this has happened.”
Lexi-Mai’s grandmother Helen Ruddick, said she has taken in Samantha and Lexi-Mai until the fireplace is fixed.
She said: “It’s terrible to think what could have happened to Lexi-Mai, but thankfully she is all right. She is sporting quite a nice black eye though.
“Samantha has been staying with me until he fireplace is fixed.”
