{"id":272754,"date":"2026-02-07T19:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/272754\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T19:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:36:07","slug":"mt-albert-aquatic-centre-hydroslide-accident-leaves-boy-facing-lifelong-dental-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/272754\/","title":{"rendered":"Mt Albert Aquatic Centre hydroslide accident leaves boy facing lifelong dental damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMason was going down the hydroslide when, just before the dark part of the tunnel, his head got thrown around and he knocked his front teeth on the inside joiners of the slide, which broke one in half,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in pain and scared, he was freaking out\u201d.<\/p>\n

An emergency dental visit the next day revealed the extent of the damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a temporary cover put over his chipped tooth, some of the pulp was exposed, his left tooth is possibly dying, which they may still have to fix as well,\u201d Rusher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hit the nerve on that left tooth, which we are waiting on a specialist to see, and could be problematic the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family paid $289 for two dental appointments, with Mason\u2019s damaged tooth \u201ccovered under ACC for life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TanyaTanya Rusher has had to fork out almost $300 for dental bills for her son Mason. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand pools are busy and that they may have been understaffed,\u201d Rusher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if that\u2019s the case, at least have some dignity and have somewhere you can take the patient, calm them down and offer support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rusher said she reported the incident to pool staff.<\/p>\n

She said staff attended to Mason in the cafeteria area, in full view of other customers and offered only an ice pack for his mouth.<\/p>\n

Rusher said she had Panadol in the car, which helped manage his pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point did anyone shut the slide in regards to blood or the tooth floating around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rusher also claimed staff did not know how to access an incident report form and instead asked her to write her contact details on scrap paper, promising a call back.<\/p>\n

\"MasonMason Rusher was told he would have lifelong dental problems after smashing his teeth on a hydroslide at Mt Albert Aquatic Centre. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

She said the pool manager rang the following week to say an incident report was being completed, but she said she still had not received a copy nor heard back from the pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son was very embarrassed that day and as a parent I really felt more could have been done, they couldn\u2019t have cared less.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact they rang me that night asking for their ice pack back enraged me, not even a \u2018Hello, is your son doing okay?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TanyaTanya Rusher said Mt Albert Aquatic Centre staff lacked care in their response to her son’s accident. Photo \/ Mt Albert Aquatic Centre<\/p>\n

Community Leisure Management (CLM), which operates the pool on behalf of Auckland Council, accepted its response to Rusher took too long and said the matter had been followed up with staff.<\/p>\n

CLM director and general manager of operations Kirsty Knowles said staff were trained and followed correct procedures when responding to the incident, noting \u201cit is normal practice for our staff to apply first aid in the foyer, reception area or at poolside as the facility has no dedicated first-aid room\u201d.<\/p>\n

Knowles said CLM was sorry Mason was injured while using the slide, and said it was improving signage around the slide and would have these installed within the next week.<\/p>\n

\"MtMt Albert Aquatic Centre operator Community Leisure Company said it was improving signage around the slide after Mason Rusher smashed his teeth while riding it. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Auckland Council head of service partner delivery Garth Dawson said the council acknowledged \u201cthe distress this experience has caused to Mason and his family\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the slide had been inspected twice since August, adding: \u201cIf this incident indicates that there is an issue with the slide itself, or the operating procedures beyond what we\u2019ve already identified, we will work closely with the slide manufacturer and CLM on any further steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, a toddler had to be rescued after he was found unconscious at the bottom of the pool<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The incident followed an audit that found several lifeguards had expired Pool Lifeguard Practising Certificates, with fewer than half presenting first aid qualifications<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMason was going down the hydroslide when, just before the dark part of the tunnel, his head got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1081,74,10049,50845,51,145134,15117,1550,22510,535,9881,1668,126471,2944,7973,21817,10048,111,43,139,69,10057,33552,6110],"class_list":["post-272754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accident","tag-after","tag-albert","tag-aquatic","tag-auckland","tag-bolt","tag-boy","tag-centre","tag-damage","tag-dental","tag-facing","tag-front","tag-hydroslide","tag-inside","tag-leaves","tag-lifelong","tag-mt","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-problems","tag-smashing","tag-teeth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}