COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. -- A toddler and his father are recovering after a pallet of water fell on them inside a Colonial Heights Sam’s Club on Sunday afternoon.
“We saw a man running down the aisle crying and yelling holding a little boy,” said Sam’s Club customer, LaKeisha Villegas.
Villegas met that man inside the Colonial Heights Sam’s Club.
He was carrying his three-year-old son after the pair were struck by a pallet of water inside the club.
Colonial Heights Fire and EMS emergency recording indicate they received numerous calls of a pallet that fell off a top shelf, landed on a child, and possibly an adult.
Units were ordered to respond to Sam’s Club, 735 Southpark Boulevard.
“His friend said he was sitting in the cart and next thing you know it everything came tumbling down and hit him,” said Villegas.
One witness believes the pallet that fell was double-stacked on the third level of the shelving.
“There was a pallet on the ground,” one witness said. “And if you look up, there was still a pallet still up there.”
“I don’t know if the pallets were double stacked,” they added. “”Maybe something was leaking at some point and got wet and gave way; I’m assuming that that’s what happened -- that the plastic wrap just gave way.”
Villegas, a registered school nurse, immediately started treating the injured young boy until help arrived.
“It kind of hit him on the whole left side; he had two places where his arm was broken, from what I can tell, and a big contusion on the top his head,” said Villegas.
“You could see the bone coming out the top bottom and bruising all around,” added Villegas. “I was just telling him it was going to be okay, he was doing good, they were taking care of him and calm down.”
Witnesses said the boy's father pulled him from the debris and EMS crews transported the boy to Southside Regional Medical Center.
There has been no word yet on his condition, but witnesses said the child was conscious and crying when he was pulled from the debris.
“I became a nurse to help. I can’t just stand there, I felt it was my duty to help,” said Villegas.
Sam's Club provided CBS 6 with the following statement, from Tara Raddohl, Senior Director, Corporate Communications for Sam’s Club.
“We’re incredibly saddened a young child was recently injured in one of our clubs. Our team in the club responded quickly and we’re staying in touch with the family. We are doing all we can to help as he recovers. We immediately started looking into what caused the incident. Once we fully understand what happened, if we find we need to do something differently, we’ll do it.”
