Toddler injured on Galleria escalator

GLENDALE — A 2-year-old boy’s fingertip was severed Saturday after the boy fell on an escalator at the Glendale Galleria, officials said.

The incident occurred at about 9:53 a.m. at the bottom of the escalator inside the mall, which is adjacent to the food court.

The child’s left index finger got caught in the moving escalator after he fell, Glendale Fire Capt. Stu Stefani said.

“It was damaged pretty bad,” he said.

Paramedics rushed the boy to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles while firefighters continued to search for the severed fingertip.

Fire crews pulled apart portions of the escalator until they found the fingertip lodged in an escalator tread roughly 30 minutes later, Stefani said.

Glendale Galleria officials declined to comment on the incident.

Firefighters placed the fingertip on ice and rushed it to the hospital so that doctors could determine whether reattaching the fingertip was possible, Stefani said.

Officials, including a representative for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, did not release the boy’s name, citing patient privacy rights.

Stafani said later that the damage to the boy’s digit was so severe that doctors determined that reattaching it was not possible.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that roughly 11,000 escalator-related injuries occurred in 2007.

While most of the injuries resulted because of a fall, 10% occurred when the person’s feet, hands or shoes got caught in the escalator.