A vacation for a New Jersey family ended in tragedy when a piece of a badminton racket broke off and pierced their 6-year-old daughter's skull, killing her. Young Lucy Morgan died on Wednesday, four days after the shocking freak accident on what was supposed to be an idyllic lakeside trip in Maine.
The tragedy struck on Saturday while the Morgan family of six was enjoying their final full day at their rental cottage in Limerick, Maine, her father, Jesse Morgan, a pastor at Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, said. Lucy was playing badminton with her family members when the racket, which her brother was playing with, suddenly broke off.
Killed in Freak Accident
"We were eating a quick lunch by the lake and the kids decided to try badminton in the front yard," Morgan wrote in a blog entry titled "Calamity Strikes."
"Bethany and I were relaxing in the back when we heard screaming,"
"Due to a freak accident with a racquet that broke on a downward swing, a sharp piece had entered Lucy's skull while she was sitting on the sideline and caused catastrophic injury."
According to Maine State Police, the "unintentional injury" was caused by her 10-year-old brother.
Investigators determined that the aluminum shaft of the racket had come loose from its wooden handle, causing it to pierce the girl's head.
Lucy was breathing but unresponsive as EMS transported her to a nearby hospital, where she was then airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland, as reported by Maine State Police.
She was taken straight to the operating room, where surgeons removed part of her skull to relieve pressure, but Lucy's heart stopped on the operating table.
With no hope of recovery, her three young siblings gathered with their parents at her bedside to sing her favorite hymn one last time before their little 'Miss Independent' passed away in the early hours of Wednesday.
Organs Donated
Fortunately, doctors managed to revive the young girl, but Lucy had lost all brain function and could no longer breathe on her own. Doctors informed the family that the little girl had "a very slim chance" of recovery. The racket shaft had penetrated deeply into her brain, causing immediate arterial bleeds, Morgan explained.
The little girl succumbed to her injuries around 4 a.m. on Wednesday, one day after she was initially expected to die.
"Every time I looked into the rearview mirror, wishing I saw Lucy munching on some chicken nuggets after we stopped at Wendy's and only ordered for 5," Morgan wrote about making the long 350-mile drive back to their New Jersey home without Lucy.
According to Morgan, Lucy's siblings, Silas (10), Shiloh (8), and Atticus (4), are struggling to understand the loss and are tragically "blaming themselves and taking it hard."
The brother who accidentally caused the fatal injury asked his grieving parents, "how we could ever be happy again," as shared in his father's blog.
"We just sat on the front steps for a while crying until I finally mustered up the courage to open the door. We again collapsed in a pile on the kitchen floor crying harder as a family than we ever have," Morgan wrote.
Her funeral will be held June 15 at her father's church.
