EXCLUSIVE: I nearly lost my foot after slicing it ‘on a nail’ when I went down a slide at Spanish water park – staff didn’t care at all

A British tourist has told how she was lucky not to lose her left foot after it was “cut wide open” in a horror accident at a water park in Spain.

Stephanie Somerville, 32, a mother of four, said she was left in agony and covered in blood after being catapulted into a wall by a “dangerous” water slide at the Rio Safari Elche water park in Alicante.

Stephanie has been off work for eight weeks and has been told she may need surgery after last Thursday’s accident (September 7).

He punched staff, who told him they believed he had torn his foot on a loose nail, but they could not find the object and continued “as if nothing had happened.”

She said: ‘They just don’t care. They kept the pool open with children in it. It’s very dangerous.

Stephanie believes she split her foot open on a loose nail, but hit staff who she says continued “as if nothing had happened.” She may still require surgery.

Stephanie said the cut on her foot was more than two inches long and she was rushed to a nearby hospital. She was told that she was lucky not to have lost her foot.

‘My foot was split open to the bone in a clean cut.

“I’m worried that the next accident that happens there will be even worse.”

Stephanie, a hospitality worker at Celtic Football Club, told how she flew to the Spanish resort on the Costa Blanca for a week-long holiday with her partner Charlie, 28, along with their three daughters aged 12, six and four. and their baby Tyrien, who is only eight months old.

But he said the holiday turned into a nightmare after the trip to the water park on the second day of his break.

Describing the accident, Stephanie, of Anniesland, Glasgow, said: “There was a big slide that you had to go down on a rubber donut.

‘I went down for the first time. It is a very fast slide but instead of being a wide or long pool at the end, it was very small.

“I flew off the slide into the pool and crashed into the wall.

‘Unless you could turn, which was possible, there was no way around it.

Stephanie claimed the Rio Safari Elche water park in Alicante was ‘dangerous’

Stephanie has been laid off from work for eight weeks following the accident.

‘The wall was rubber but I hit it very hard.

‘I tried to stop but when I put my foot in the pool I felt tremendous pain.

‘I thought I had broken my foot. She was in agony.

“I didn’t realize what had happened until I got out of the pool and a Spaniard came up to me and asked if I was okay.

“I was pointing at my foot. I looked down and there was blood everywhere.

“That’s when I realized they had cut the bottom of my foot wide open.”

Stephanie said no staff were able to offer medical assistance and she was advised to drive to a private hospital 15 minutes away.

She said: ”I was crying and couldn’t walk.

‘They didn’t care or bother at all. It was just a random guy who helped me. There was no one there who had medical training to help.

‘They had cut my foot and there was blood in the puddle, but they didn’t do anything.

‘Luckily my children had stayed in the small pool and not been on the slide, but there were five or six year olds using it.

“They left us alone and we had to drive to the hospital.”

Stephanie said that when she arrived at the IMED Hospital in Elche, the doctors were not surprised to see her.

She said: ‘At the hospital they said it was very bad. They said I would need surgery but I was lucky because I could have lost my foot.

‘Whatever was in the pool tore the back of my toe and cut off the entire front half of my foot.

‘The cut measures more than five centimeters long. It’s a clean cut. I had to give myself stitches.

After the accident, Stephanie spent the next five days of her family vacation “staying home” as it was too painful for her to move.

Stephanie, from Glasgow, works at Celtic Football Club and had been on holiday with her children in Spain.

Stephanie, who has been in contact with a lawyer and insurers, said the water park paid for her basic treatment but refused to pay compensation and insisted they could do nothing more for her.

She said: ‘There’s obviously something not right there. That slide needs to be closed. It is dangerous. People don’t realize what they’re getting into.

‘It’s really fast. There’s nothing stopping you and you come to this area that’s too small.

‘We returned to the water park two days later because they had stopped taking our calls.

‘They hadn’t done anything about it.

“They thought it was a small loose nail or screw causing it, but they said they couldn’t find anything and kept it open as usual.

‘There was no proper investigation. They don’t know if the nail was in the floor or in the wall.’

Stephanie told how she spent the next five days of her holiday “staying home” at the villa the family had rented as part of their £2,100 holiday.

“She said, ‘I couldn’t go out because I couldn’t walk.’ I had to buy crutches and antibiotics, but it was too painful to move.

“We had only been there two days when it happened and the whole vacation was ruined. It turned into a nightmare.”

Stephanie said she was only given permission to fly home at the last minute after airport staff spoke to the hospital doctors who treated her.

She was wheeled onto the plane and her foot swelled so much on the flight home that she needed another wheelchair after landing, before going straight to A&E from the airport.

She said: ‘I have a baby and I have been laid off from work for eight weeks and my partner, who is self-employed, can’t work at the moment because he is looking after me and helping with the children.

‘I’m still in a lot of pain. I have to go back to have the stitches removed.

‘They don’t know anything yet. I won’t know if I will need surgery or further treatment until after that and the wound could become infected; anything could still happen.’

MailOnline has contacted the water park for comment.