A medical student from Swansea is demanding 1,500 euros compensation from Aqualand Costa Adeje after he broke his nose by crashing into a step on one of the rides at the water park in the south of Tenerife.
James Dudley, aged 30 smashed his face on a set of steps after going down a slide head first on a mat too fast. Dudley and his fiancée were on a romantic break in Tenerife when they visited Aqualand last Saturday (April 22nd), which turned out to be a holiday nightmare.
Talking to the MailOnline, he told how he went down a slide called the Twister, a four-lane slide that's 80 metres long and 14 metres high, twice without any incident, but the third time he wasn’t so lucky, going too fast and smashing headfirst into a set of steps which led to him needing hospital treatment after the incident.
“I'd already ridden the slide twice that morning and it was fine,” Mr Dudley said, “but I travelled much faster on my third go and flew down into the trough at a rapid pace, breaking my nose in the process.”
“You use a mat to slide down and you go face first. The previous two times, the water at the bottom had slowed me down as it was supposed to, but for some reason, this time, I skidded right over it. I smashed head first into the steps at the end of the trough and the top step caught my face and I broke my nose.”
“Blood immediately started gushing out into the water and onto the mat - it looked like something out of a horror movie. I eventually caught the attention of one of the lifeguards, and a medic came over, who then wheeled me into the first aid room.”
“They decided I needed treatment so they refunded our entry tickets and booked me a taxi to the nearest hospital.”
Mr Dudley was treated at a nearby hospital for his injuries where they stopped the bleeding from his nose and carried out X-rays as he had also badly bruised his torso from the impact, but thankfully without breaking any ribs. When he was discharged he was given a £1,413.57 bill from the hospital, which his insurance company has paid.
He explained that “after a lengthy phone call with my travel insurer I was able to get the costs covered as 'X-rays showed I had a broken nose and bad bruising. I was also given a prescription for the pain, and told not to do any sunbathing - which was very disappointing considering we were on holiday.”
However, Mr Dudley says that the accident ruined his holiday with his fiancée, and he wants compensation from Aqualand as the refund of their entry tickets is not enough. He says he's also not afraid to take it further.
