Jack Grunfeld lost 92 per cent of sight in his left eye after an accident on a school trip.
Jack Grunfeld lost 92 per cent of sight in his left eye after an accident on a school trip.
A teen who lost almost all sight in one eye after an elastic slingshot broke during a school trip said he was furious when the company running the game tried to blame him for the injury.
Almost five years after the incident, the company was found guilty of health and safety breaches following the schoolboy’s family launching a private prosecution.
When he was 15 years old, Jack Grunfeld lost 92 per cent of vision in his left eye after an elastic slingshot broke during a boarding school trip at Team Up Events’ Rotorua centre.
The bungee hit his pupil and the shock damaged the retina of Grunfeld’s eye, filling it with blood and leaving him unable to see out of it.
“Team Up walked up to me straight away and gave me a massive chunk of ice and just said, ‘You’ll have a real shiner in the morning,’ and that’s about it.
“I remember going, ‘Oh my god, I can’t open my eye,’ little did I know my eye was open already with blood pouring out,” Grunfeld said.
The game didn’t stop for Grunfeld, and he said it wasn’t until he started feeling unwell later in the day at a different event that he was sent away for medical attention.
“As a response, I would have liked to have seen a lot more from [Team Up],” he said.
Grunfeld was admitted to Waikato Hospital later in the day, where the extent of the injury became clear.
“I just remember hearing [the doctor say], which still resonates with me the most... ‘I’m fearful for your son’s sight’.
“That’s what shook me, the pain itself I can kind of deal with... but then that, I went home and I think I just fell asleep for hours from the shock of hearing that.”
Now 20 years old and studying engineering in Wellington, Grunfeld reflects on having to battle in court to prove it wasn’t his fault after WorkSafe refused to prosecute the company over the incident.
In its report to WorkSafe, Team Up Events blamed Grunfeld for his own injury, citing “participant error” because he glanced backward at the bungee the moment it broke.
“I’m not a very angry person, but I felt some pretty raw anger,” he said.
“It was shocking really.”
WorkSafe did not talk to Grunfeld about the injury and closed its investigation into the incident without telling the family, he said.
Only after making an OIA request did Grunfeld’s parents find out that WorkSafe had not visited the accident site nor had they questioned the business or the participants about the equipment used or instructions given.
WorkSafe declined to prosecute Team Up Events so Grunfeld’s parents instead took a private prosecution against the business under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The prosecution was difficult for Grunfeld and he said he was made to feel like he was lying.
He was taken aback by the lack of responsibility the company’s team took for the injury which had changed his life forever.
“I just want to hear you apologise and be sympathetic, but it just felt like a pure marketing scheme.”
Manukau District Court Judge Jane Lovell-Smith found Team Up Events guilty of health and safety breaches in a reserved decision released this week, almost five years after the incident.
Team Up Events would be sentenced in Manukau District Court this year.
Jack Grunfeld says his injury still “bites away” at him some days.
Grunfeld’s mother Kathy Voyles described the court case as a “four-year battle to save others’ eyes”.
“Nobody seemed to realise that Jack’s eye would never be the same although the pictures of his eye after the event look horrific.”
Only two Team Up Event staff were on site supervising 46 kids when the accident occurred, and Grunfeld’s school carers were the first responders, she said.
“Jack had just lost 22 per cent of his body functionality that day as calculated by ACC.”
Grunfeld said his injury still “bites away” at him some days.
“Looking at screens or lectures in the classroom, I was constantly getting that feeling of when you put on way too strong glasses and get a headache.
“I was quite into my skateboarding... it just doesn’t feel the same at all, the co-ordination, you have to completely relearn.”
