Photo From Facebook/Julia Worme

By Chris Brown

Eight-year-old will need surgery

Fundraiser created for girl who suffered fractured jaw in playground accident

Apr 5, 2022 | 12:54 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A tragic accident Wednesday evening at a city playground has put one young girl in hospital and spurred a neighbour and family friend to start a fundraiser to help with costs the family will now face.

Julia Worme didn’t see the incident so couldn’t go into much detail but says eight-year-old Shannon Kunka was hurt on the teeter-totter while playing with friends.

“Her jaw was fractured in two spots and the socket of her jaw actually came out of place. So she does have a dislocated jaw and she has it fractured in two parts,” says Worme.

Shannon, who Worme says has autism, is at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital until she can get her pain and meds under control and will eventually need surgery at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

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“But they just can’t do surgery right now because of the extent of her injuries. They don’t want to hurt it more shatter her jaw or anything like that so they basically just have to kind of let it heal for a couple of weeks before they can go in and do any kind of reconstruction,” Worme says.

Worme started a fundraiser on her Facebook page that has already been spread to multiple online groups.

“It started off just private you know and then all of sudden I got people wanting to help, wanting to join, messaging me commenting saying ‘how can we help this family,'” she says. “Because they are going to have to go through medical trips and trips to Calgary and mom had to stop working you know is going to have to stop working eventually So it’s definitely a tough time for them.”

She says any kind of help is appreciated and the main concern is just getting Shannon better, back home, back to school and back to the normal happy kid she is.