A Western Sydney girl came within millimetres of being blinded in one eye by a metal hook.
A Western Sydney mother is on a mission to make retail stores safer for children after her daughter came within millimetres of being blinded in one eye by a metal hook.
Maureen Ahluwalia was shopping with her two-year-old daughter, Amaira, at homewares and clothing store Harris Scarfe in Blacktown last month when the scary accident occurred.
Ahluwalia said her daughter was not running around, but walking calmly next to her when she suddenly collided with a slat wall hook placed at toddler height.
"She turned around to do something and when she turned back she hit her eye," she said.
"I just saw her grab her eye and she was crying."
Ahluwalia said was confronted with how serious the injury was when her daughter opened her eye.
"She opened her eye, and there was blood starting to pool into it," Ahluwalia said.
Acting on the advice of a family member, Ahluwalia immediately rushed her daughter to see an optometrist located in the same shopping centre.
"The optometrist said that she barely missed her cornea," Ahluwalia said of her daughter's injury.
"If it was a millimetre in, she would have lost her vision."
Amaira was left with a blood clot on her eye, which has since gone away.
Ahluwalia said she was grateful her daughter had fully recovered, but she was left furious when she went online and saw how common it was for metal hooks in shops to cause eye injuries among toddlers.
"The issue is, why are these hooks being placed at toddler height in the first place?" she said.
9news.com.au contacted Harris Scarfe owners, the Spotlight Retail Group, however they did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
In 2020, 9news.com.au reported on a spate of grisly eye injuries toddlers had sustained at Kmart and Target stores.
Among those injured was six-year-old Cecilia Chen, who was shopping with her grandmother at Kmart's Chatswood store when she collided with an apparel arm hook.
Cecilia needed two surgeries to repair her torn eyelid and damage to her eye.
Her mother, Jill Huang, took legal action against Kmart, and the retail giant was ordered to pay the family almost $60,000 in compensation.
In response to Cecilia's case, and a string of similar accidents, Kmart and Target rolled out safety changes in December 2020, which involved adding soft plastic covers to the ends of apparel arms in stores nationwide.
Ahluwalia said she would like to see all retail stores implementing similar safety measures.
The mother has started a NSW parliamentary petition calling on mandatory safety standards for retail fixtures to be implemented.
The petition has gained the support of Labor MP for Blacktown, Stephen Bali, who will present the petition to the NSW Legislative Assembly.
Victorian mother Amira Good said changes were needed on a national level after her son Ryder was left with a nasty injury to his face by a metal store hook in June.
Good was shopping with her 2-year-old son in Kmart's Brunswick store when he collided with a metal hook in the cosmetic section.
Although Kmart stores typically have plastic price tags covering the ends of the cosmetic rack hooks, many of the plastic slips were missing at the time, leaving pointed metal bars exposed at toddler height, Good said.
"We were just walking, and there was a metal hook hanging out at Ryder's height and as he walked past, it scraped his face," she said.
"He got a cut millimetres under his eye, and it went all the way from his cheek to his ear," Good said.
"There was so much blood."
A Kmart spokesperson told 9news.com.au the retailer was aware of the incident at its Brunswick store.
"Our thoughts are with those impacted. We are cooperating with relevant parties as we review the matter and are unable to comment on the specifics," the spokesperson said.
"We want to assure our customers and team members that their safety is our highest priority."
Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au.
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