A PHYSICALLY disabled Bishop's Stortford girl has spent the last four weeks in hospital after falling and injuring her knee in an accident her mother says "should never have happened".
Thirteen-year-old Emma Lee, who has congenital muscular dystrophy and walks with the aid of a frame, tripped over at her home in Plaw Hatch Close in August.
Her family have been waiting for modifications to be made to the ground floor of their house for the last two years.
The planned adjustments would enable Emma to move around the house with more ease, reducing the risk of accidents.
But the work, which the family said should have started in April, has still not begun.
Emma's mother Michelle Thompson said: "We have been waiting for over two years for a ground floor extension that will mean Emma will have her own bathroom and bedroom downstairs. Plans have been drawn up for quite a while but Stort Valley Housing keeps fobbing us off.
"They initially said it would go ahead at the beginning of the financial year in April but nothing happened.
"Then at the beginning of the summer holiday they told us that the work would start in a matter of weeks. But again it was delayed and every time I got in touch with them they said it would be another two weeks then another two weeks.
"And now Emma is stuck in hospital when she doesn't need to be. If the work was started in April it would have been finished by now and this wouldn't have happened. It's disgusting , a complete shambles."
Emma was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow where they found she had pulled the ligament off the top of her kneecap.
Her right leg is now in plaster.
A spokesman for Stort Valley Housing Association said: "The association was most concerned to hear about Emma's fall, and wish her a full and speedy recovery.
"We understand and sympathise with her family's frustration at the time taken to start work, but can confirm that the builder, who was appointed earlier in the year, has received the final go-ahead from East Herts District Council and will begin work on the modifications to the house next month as planned.
"In the light of Emma's fall, the staff who are handling this project will be having a meeting with her and her parents and the occupational therapist from Herts County Council to see whether or not the adaptations already agreed need to be altered in the light of her injury. However, we do not anticipate this causing any extra delay to the start date of mid-October."
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