A BOY who suffered serious head and facial injuries in a road accident was sent to Blackburn Royal Infirmary by taxi from the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Ashley Ceesay, aged 12, was struck by a car while crossing Junction Road, Deane, on his way home from school last Monday.

His head smashed into the car's windscreen, leaving the youngster with wounds so severe that he needed muscle surgery and more than 100 stitches to his head.

His mother Louise said: "It looked like his head had been opened with a tin opener. There was blood everywhere."

The Deane School pupil was kept overnight at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Doctors then decided he should be sent 12 miles away to Blackburn for plastic surgery the next day.

Hospital staff called a taxi as they did not feel his condition warranted an ambulance journey.

Miss Ceesay and her son endured the 40-minute trip with no medical supervision and the injured youngster wearing just his pyjamas and no footwear.

Ashley repeatedly passed out during the journey and the taxi driver carried him into the hospital entrance as his mother could not lift him.

He underwent surgery during which muscle and flesh was trimmed from his face to allow surgeons to apply stitches to his wounds.

Ashley spent a further two nights at the hospital before being discharged, and is now resting at his home in Hawthorn Street, Deane.

Miss Ceesay, aged 31, feared that Ashley's wounds could have become infected during the hospital wait.

"At the time I was still in shock and it didn't really dawn on me how dangerous it was to send him to Blackburn in such a poorly state without any medical supervision," she said.

"It was just me, him and the taxi driver. I dread to think what could have happened of anything had gone wrong. I just think it's disgusting."

A spokesman for the Royal Bolton Hospital said that taxis were used from time to time in transferring patients as "additional hospital transport".

"In this sort of case he will have been observed and assessed before any decision was made to call for transport," said the spokesman.

"If staff did not feel he was clinically fit enough to go by this method, he would have gone by ambulance. We use the ambulances for people who need them because of the equipment and training of the drivers.

"We do have some hospital transport and also have an agreement with some local taxi firms. If the family has any further complaints we suggest they contact a senior member of staff in the children's department."