Warning: This article contains an image which may disturb some readers.
A US mother is warning other parents about the dangers of a seemingly innocent playground activity with one sickening photo.
In September 2015, Heather Clare and her husband took their one-year-old twins Meadow and Matthew to a park in Huntington, New York. The family enjoyed playing at the playground, and Ms Clare placed her son on her lap and slid down a three-metre slide with him.
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But when she did the same with her daughter, something went horribly wrong. Meadow's right foot got caught between her mother's body and the edge of the slide when they were halfway down.
"When I realised what was happening, I used my top hand to try to stop us and leaned to release her foot," Ms Clare wrote in a Facebook post.
But she wasn't quick enough, and the baby's little leg was broken.
The horrific moment was captured on camera by Ms Clare's husband, who managed to snap a photo at the exact moment Meadow's leg twisted and broke.
The parents knew something was wrong when Meadow began crying at the bottom of the slide. They rushed her to the ER, where they were told that it's extremely common for children to be injured by going down a slide on a parent's lap.
Even if parents tuck in their child's feet before sliding, doctors warned that little feet can still easily get stuck and cause terrible injuries.
"I had no idea," Ms Clare wrote. "I thought everyone took their kids down the slide."
Meadow fractured her tibia and fibula, and spent the next month in a cast.
Ms Clare says she shares the gruesome photo every year to warn other parents not to go down slides with their young children.
"[I] hope that the pain Meadow felt and the guilt that I still feel will save other babies and parents from the same."
She says every playground should have a sign warning parents against the common practice.
Newshub.
