Girl, 12, almost loses her finger sitting on ‘broken Subway chair’

A 12-year-old girl narrowly escaped losing the end of one of her fingers after it got trapped in a broken chair inside Subway, her family has claimed.

Rose Rowe was left needing stitches after slicing the little finger on her right hand while she sat in the Hampshire branch of the sandwich chain.

The girl’s mother claimed staff at the shop ‘didn’t know what to do’ in the emergency situation and criticised them for offering Rose a plaster and tissues.

Rose’s cousin Yasmin Corbett, 14, had to wipe blood off their table as well as the restaurant floor, her mother Maria Cleary, 35, claimed.

Rose, from Portsmouth, had sat down at a table in the sandwich chain, pulling in the chair underneath her and trapping her little finger between the top of the chair leg and the seat.

The end of the metal leg cut through the end of her finger, severing the nail. Her family say the chair was broken after a pad came away from the metal base, although the sandwich chain dispute this.

Maria, who was elsewhere in the Gunwharf Quays shopping centre in Portsmouth, said she got a panicked phone call from Yasmin telling her to ‘come quick, Rose has ripped her fingernail off’.

She said: ‘Rose saw me through the window and came out to me. I have never seen my daughter look like that.

‘She moved away all of the tissue and plaster so I could see and as she held the end of her finger it wobbled like it was going to fall off.

‘My girl was in a lot of pain and did not know what to do.

‘Staff in Subway just watched on before eventually offering her a plaster, tissues and ibuprofen.’

Maria, an antiques seller, criticised the way Subway dealt with the incident.

‘The staff didn’t know what to do.

‘They just left Rose trying to stop the bleeding and mopping up the blood on the floor.

‘I’m sure the food standards agency would not be happy about such a thing taking place.’

The mother-of-three was given the manager’s number written down on a paper bag before leaving to drive her daughter to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, where she was treated.

The manager of the Subway store, who did not want to be named, said: ‘Staff offered the girl a plaster and tissues and asked to see if she needed any more help but she said she didn’t and then left the store.’

He then added: ‘There was no blood. Our staff are medically trained and we have first aid and if there is a serious situation then staff know to push a button for the (shopping mall’s) medical team to come out.’

He did say, however, that events could have been handled differently, adding: ‘I was not there when it happened. If I had been there I wouldn’t have left anyone where there was blood. It could all be miscommunication.’

Referring to the chair, he said: ‘Our chairs were not broken but we have removed it anyway as it is better for the public. Sometimes people put too much pressure on the chairs and fingers get caught in the gap.’

Subway is the UK’s largest high street fast-food chain with 2,500 stores across the UK.