A 12-year-old Western Australian girl faces more than a year of surgeries after being swooped by a magpie on her way home from school.
Leschenault mother Nicole Baldwin said her daughter Sam had just finished school and was walking across an oval in the town of Australind to meet her brother when the bird suddenly struck.
“It was just a routine afternoon,” Nicole told news.com.au.
“She called me about five minutes before I got there and said, ‘Mum, I’ve been swooped, it’s got me in the eye’. She was crying and pretty upset.”
Nicole told Sam to stay with a family friend nearby until she arrived.
“When I got there, I could see straight away it was bad. It looked like there was a tear or a flap across her eye. I couldn’t tell how deep it went until we got to emergency,” she added.
Within an hour, Sam was rushed for emergency surgery at Busselton Hospital.
“The surgeon told me there was probably no chance of her getting any sight back in that eye,” Nicole recalled.
“He said she’d need at least seven or eight surgeries over the next 15 to 18 months.”
Just days later, Sam’s condition worsened after her first operation.
“Her lens started to swell because it had been hit by the bird’s beak,” Nicole said.
“We had to go straight to Perth Children’s Hospital for more surgery to remove it. Now we have to wait for the swelling to go down before they can even tell if the back of her eye has been damaged.”
Nicole said her daughter has stayed positive but doesn’t yet understand the long road ahead.
“She’s doing pretty well emotionally, but I don’t think she quite understands how long this will go on, sadly. She’s in a lot of pain and really sensitive to light. She can’t take her eye patch off, and she doesn’t want to go outside at all.”
Sam has not returned to school and spends most of her time resting.
“She’s just happy to lie in bed and stay away from it all,” Nicole said.
Nicole said she’s always been careful during magpie season and still can’t understand how the bird struck so directly.
“I always tell the kids not to look up if they hear a bird’s wings close by – but Sam didn’t. She was looking down, and it still came straight for her with pure rage. It hit her front-on, right in the eye.”
She hopes sharing their story will make other parents more aware, and urges them to remind their kids to wear sunglasses and hats and walk in groups.
“Be vigilant and stay aware as best you can.”
Nicole added that the accident has turned life upside down for her family, as she is a single mum of three who works full-time. Since the incident, she has had to take unpaid leave, “which is a big struggle financially”.
“I’m two hours from home, paying for petrol, hospital stays, and medication. It all adds up very quickly,” she added.
A close friend has since set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs, with over $10k already raised for the family.
The move brought Nicole to tears, “It’s really hard to accept help,” she said.
“I cried when I saw it. It’s a lifeline for us because I’m not getting paid right now”.
Magpie swooping season typically runs from August to October, though it can continue into November in some areas.
According to community website Magpie Alert, there have been 4658 attacks across Australia this year, with 557 causing injuries.
Wildlife science lecturer Meg Edwards from the University of Southern Queensland said swooping is more common in populated areas.
“We tend to see more magpies moving in areas with more people,” Dr Edwards told the publication.
“So you’re more likely to get swooped in cities because there are more birds and more people around. They’re just swooping anything that seems like a threat to them,” she added.
She said staying away from nesting areas is the best way to avoid attack, and added that it would be good to have signs up in swooping areas to educate people.
Dr Edwards added that protecting habitats and staying calm can also reduce the risk.
“The less that we can destroy their habitat and destroy trees where they might be nesting and provide them more cover, the better.”
Images: Courtesy of Baldwin family
