A two-year-old boy from Lerwick is recovering at home after sustaining severe cuts to his left hand from broken glass that was covered by snow in his garden.
Kaiden Shutt had to be taken to hospital in Aberdeen when it became clear the cuts were so deep that a joint had been revealed and a tendon severed.
The accident happened in a shared garden at Union Street in the town.
His mum Debbie Shutt is now calling on parents to be extra vigilant when they let their kids out to play in the snow.
The 25-year-old said she and her husband Richard were planning to build a snowman with their two children Kaiden and four-year-old Annika last week.
“We checked the garden as usual and found nothing unsafe to be seen. We started on the snowman and asked the kids to collect snow,” she said.
“Next thing we knew Kaiden was screaming and Annika shouting about ice.
“We ran over to find Kaiden bleeding very badly from the hand and my daughter holding a piece of what she called ‘ice’.
“I took it off her realising that it was a huge piece of glass. It had been under the snow and unseen by us.”
They took Kaiden to Lerwick’s Gilbert Bain Hospital from where he was transferred to Aberdeen on a scheduled Loganair flight.
Kaiden had surgery on his hand on Thursday morning, and has been back to Aberdeen on Monday for a check-up, but his parents will only learn next week if he will regain full control over his little finger again.
“We are obviously totally devastated at this and cannot understand who in their right mind would leave a shattered panel of glass in a shared garden were children play,” his mum said.
“I’d really like to get as many people as possible to know about the risks of broken glass and how important it is to always clean it up.
“No one should have to deal with this, let alone a two year old.”
Council workers have meanwhile removed the broken glass from the garden.