Mother of jumping castle victim, Peter Dodt says school told her he was ‘fine’

While the mother of a boy who died in the tragic Devonport accident was asked to pick her son up from school, the 12-year-old was fighting for his life in hospital.

The last words 12-year-old Peter Dodt said to his mum were an unfussy: “I love you, bye mum.”

Miranda Mclaughlin, his mother, spent the morning rubbing sunscreen into his fair skin before he went to his last day at Hillcrest Primary School in the sleepy town of Devonport in Tasmania.

By the day’s end Peter would become one of the six children – alongside Zane Mellor, 12, Jye Sheehan, 12, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, 12, Addison Stewart, 11, and Chace Hamilton, 11 – who died when a jumping castle was thrown 10 metres into the air by a freak gust of wind during the school’s end-of-year celebrations.

Three other students also sustained severe injuries but have since recovered.

The mum said the mistake meant her son was surrounded by strangers when he got to hospital. Picture: Supplied

However, a miscommunication from the school meant Ms Mclaughlin was unable to say goodbye to her son, missing some of her child’s crucial last moments.

Instead, while the horrific incident was unfolding, Ms Mclaughlin was just five minutes away.

“He was awake at the scene for over an hour. He was in and out but we could have been there. We should have been there,” the grieving mother told news.com.au.

While she’s grateful Peter had a familiar teacher stay by his side while he was waiting for treatment at the oval, she was unable to accompany him to the hospital.

“I had 30 people waiting to take me if I needed to go but we were told it wasn’t urgent,” she said.

“I’m fully aware that they’ve got emergency protocols, which mean they don’t want extra people on the scene screaming and getting in the way, but with something as serious as what happened, we should have been there.

“[Instead,] he ended up with strangers.”

The first inkling that something was wrong came from Facebook, said Ms Mclaughlin. They heard that there had been an incident at school and the parents had been asked to “pick the children up”.

She then called the school, where she identified herself as the parent of Peter, however she was given vague instructions to collect her kids.

In the aftermath of the accident, mourners carpeted the entrance of Hillcrest Primary School in a tribute to the lost children. Picture: Jason Edwards

In lieu of Peter being in any danger – that they were aware of – Ms Mclaughlin and Peter’s dad, Andrew Dodt sent Peter’s 16-year-old sister, Chloe and his grandma to collect him from school.

“It was fine. It was the normal thing,” she said.

“Emotionally she was close to him and then being just that physically close at the time of the accident … she’s more traumatised than the rest of the kids because she was at the scene.”

Mr Dodt also went to the school, where he pushed past police on his way to the school office before being told that Peter was getting flown to hospital.

Later they realised that Mr Dodt had ran past Peter while he was on the oval. “If he’d ran 30 or 50 metres to the left, he would have ran into Peter.

‘He fought really, really, really hard’

In actual fact, Peter had suffered life-threatening injuries in the fall, including a shattered pelvis, severe head trauma, and hemothorax which occurs when blood pools in the lungs. From the school, the 12-year-old was flown to Mersey Community Hospital and placed on life support, with plans to fly (by helicopter) to the larger Royal Hobart Hospital, 271km away.

“Andrew (who had finally got to the hospital) was able to give him a kiss, tell him that we love him and told him we would see him in Hobart when he got there,” she said.

Ms McLaughlin had arrived in Tasmania just six days before Peter’s death. Picture: Supplied

Unfortunately, Peter’s condition deteriorated on the way to Hobart and the helicopter was forced to divert to Launceston.

“When we got there, they took us to a room and told us that he was in surgery and he was fighting for his life,” she said.

“They said they were having trouble stabilising him well enough to get him into the MRI so they could see where they had to go to fix him. They opened him up trying to find the bleeding … and the next concern was they found the bleeding in his lung.

“They said he fought really, really, really hard. They lost him a couple of times and then they couldn’t get him back.”

Peter with his dad, Andrew Dodt at Hillcrest Primary School. Picture: Supplied

His mum said Peter sustained injuries Hillcrest Primary School jumping castle tragedy.

‘We should have been there’

While the parents of the children killed in the Hillcrest tragedy have received an apology from the Tasmanian Department of Education, she maintains they should have been given more information.

“With a critical incident like that, the parents of the injured children should be notified the second it happened and they should have been allowed to go to the children,” she said

“It was on the radio before parents were even informed. It’s disgusting.”

Peter was farewelled at the Mersey Gardens Chapel in Devonport. Picture: Supplied.

Attendees released bright green balloons in honour of the 12-year-old. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

In a few days, Ms Mclaughlin will permanently return to Tasmania where she plans on living closer to family.

But for now, Ms Mclaughlin wants Peter remembered as an “amazing little soul who could light up any room”.

According to parents at the scene of the incident, Peter’s last actions when the jumping castle blew into the air was to warn and help the other children. Ms Mclaughlin wasn’t surprised when she learnt of her son’s touching gesture.

“I’ve had reports from other family members who were on-scene that they heard Peter screaming for people to get off [the jumping castle],” she remembered.

“He knew something was wrong and he would have been like that. He wouldn’t have worried about himself, he would have worried about making sure everyone else was okay.

“He was so full of life and he had heaps more to give.”

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