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Jill Huang’s daughter Cecilia was shopping with her grandmother in Kmart’s Chatswood store in January 2020 when she slipped and fell onto a metal clothes hook.
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW: An image showing the full extent of Cecilia’s injuries has been included in this article at the request of her mother who wishes it to serve as a warning to others.
Cecilia’s accident was also just one of several cases of children being injured on the metal hooks at Kmart and Target stores.
After her accident, Cecilia was rushed to hospital and needed two major surgeries to repair her eyelid.
Huang took the case to the NSW District Court where, last month, Kmart was ordered to pay the family almost $60,000 in compensation for the accident.
Kmart previously admitted to the court it had breached its duty of care to Cecilia, who is now eight years old.
Two years on from the accident, Cecilia still suffers from anxiety and is left with a permanent scar on her eyelid, her mother said.
Huang said it was possible Celicia would need further expensive surgery when she was older, as well as sessions with a psychologist to treat her anxiety.
The court heard Cecilia refuses to talk about the accident, and the previously active child is reluctant to play any contact sports.
She often cries and is anxious at night.
A psychiatrist told the court the behavioural changes were “significant” and he believed she should receive counselling “sooner rather than later”.
Judge Robert Montgomery said the ordeal could have a lifelong impact on Cecilia.
“In my opinion, quite apart from the pain and inconvenience, (Cecilia’s) demeanour and zest for life have been severely impacted by the defendant’s negligence,” he said.
Despite the prospect of taking on Kmart in court, Huang said she was determined to fight for her daughter’s future needs.
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“Everyone told me Kmart is too big to fight, but I am just a mother trying to protect my daughter,” Huang said.
“I’m also teaching my daughter that in the future if she feels something is unfair, she should be brave and speak up, even if she feels small and insignificant.
“There needs to be someone to stand up and take the risk, to challenge the laws, regulations and rules to make this world better and safer.
“Cecilia was just an innocent girl and it was a horrible experience.”
Before the case went to court, lawyers for Kmart offered her a settlement, but the offer was rejected.
Huang said declining to settle the case outside court meant she needed to pay both Kmart’s legal fees and her own, which would whittle away almost all of the $60,000 in compensation her daughter was awarded.
“It’s very heartbreaking. We didn’t ask for millions of dollars, we’re not greedy. We were just asking for enough to cover the potential costs for my daughter in the future,” she said.
Despite winning the case, Huang said it didn’t feel like a victory and she was planning to lodge an appeal.
A spokesperson for Kmart said the retail chain accepted the court’s judgement in the case and “extended its best wishes to Cecilia and her family”.
“Following the incident, Kmart rolled out rubber caps to be placed on top of all hang rail arms across our stores and these are regularly maintained to try and ensure no similar incidents occur again,” the spokesperson said.
Despite the stress involved in speaking out and taking legal action, Huang said she was glad it had resulted in changes to help protect other children.
“I still think I did the right thing because they changed the policy and the safety standards because of what happened to Cecilia,” she said.
Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au.
