A class visit to an orchard to pick apples, turned into a nightmare for Angie and her family
Rummaging through my five-year-old’s book bag, I noticed a letter addressed to me.
After reading it, I showed it to my husband Will.
‘They want to take Gabe’s class back to that apple orchard,’ I told him.
‘He’ll be happy, he loved it
last time,’ he replied.
It was true, Gabe and his classmates had had a blast
on the same school trip the
year before.
We’d gone as chaperones like
most of the parents.
So we decided we’d go again this time too.
I went to find
Gabe in his room.
‘We’re going back to the
apple orchard with your classmates,’ I said.
‘Do I get to pick an apple?’ he asked, smiling.
‘Of course you do,’ I chuckled.
Gabe was close with my dad Bob, so I invited him as a chaperone too.
That morning, when everyone had arrived at the orchard, the owner came to say hello to
the kids.
‘Right, let’s take you all on the tour then,’ he smiled.
Then just like the last year, a tractor came along with two
large wagons attached for us to sit in.
We piled into one with 25 other people, while another class got into the other.
At the first stop, the kids excitedly picked apples.
Then after the next stop, the tractor began going down a hill.
'We need to get him to hospital'
It’s going quite fast, I thought.
As it got faster and faster, I began to panic.
Suddenly, the driver tried to brake.
There was
so much momentum
that the other wagon detached and continued down the hill on its own.
But ours began to topple.
It felt like it was happening in slow motion.
We’ll be crushed underneath
it, I fretted.
Some of the adults and kids opposite us were flung into the air, so Will reached out to hold Gabe.
But at the last second, he slipped from his grasp.
I braced myself for the impact.
Next thing I knew, we were all pinned to the ground by the wagon on top of us.
We couldn’t move and there were cries of panic.
‘Let’s try to lift it up!’ one of the dads called out.
Eventually, a few of them managed to lift it high enough for us to crawl out.
‘Gabe, are you OK?’ I said as I crouched by him.
That’s when I saw blood coming from a wound on the front of his head. He was looking drowsy.
‘Stay awake, sweetie,’ I told him.
Then, I glanced at my dad and noticed he had a head wound too.
‘Dad, you’re hurt!’ I exclaimed.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ he said.
Will and I seemed to have got out unscathed.
But a few people around us were unconscious.
I frantically checked my pockets for my phone but realised it must’ve fallen out.
‘Someone call the emergency services!’ I yelled.
Paramedics soon arrived, and one of them checked Gabe over.
‘We need to get him to hospital now,’ he said.
A jolt of panic went through me.
Because the nearest trauma unit was over two hours away, an air ambulance was called. It was gut-wrenching to watch my little boy being
taken away.
I immediately called my mum who I knew was in the same area
as the hospital.
She agreed to head there quickly so that Gabe wouldn’t be alone.
Then, a paramedic told us that Dad needed to be checked over at a different hospital.
‘Dad, I’ll call you as soon as I can,’ I told him, before Will and
I got in the car.
When we finally
got to see Gabe, a member of staff was waiting for us.
‘Your son is in theatre at the moment having his wounds stitched up,’ she said. ‘It’s touch and go. He suffered multiple skull fractures, a bruise on the brain and a concussion.’
My heart sank.
I can’t lose my son, I thought.
Then she explained one of
the fractured bones was pressing down on an artery in his head, but that it was too dangerous to operate on.
Instead, all they could do was stitch the wound up and hope
for the best.
I was a nervous wreck, but Will managed to keep calm.
While we waited for news, we were checked for injuries.
Luckily Will just had a few scratches, but I had a shoulder injury and a severely bruised leg.
But I didn’t care because my focus was on Gabe.
An hour later, we were told he was in ICU.
When we saw our little boy hooked up to machines with a neck brace on, I welled up.
We sat beside his bed and held a hand each, waiting for him to come around.
When he eventually did, he was understandably scared and started crying.
‘It’s OK, Mummy and Daddy are here,’ I soothed.
‘Hold my hand, Mummy,’ he murmured.
So I did, and the comfort of it lulled him back to sleep.
‘We need to monitor him closely for the next few days,’ a nurse said.
I sent up a silent prayer for him to get better.
Later, Dad was dropped off by a family friend, with his minor head wound having been bandaged up.
All three of us stayed by Gabe’s side.
The next day, he was moved to the neurology department.
Every time he woke, he got upset about having the neck brace on.
‘He’s not keeping any food down so he has to stay on IV fluids,’ said a doctor.
I was so worried that I could barely sleep.
Next day, Gabe was
still in a bad way
and had to be
sedated.
Then, we
got a call from Will’s daughter to say that his son Damien,
16, had been
in a tractor accident.
‘Not another one!’ I exclaimed.
He’d been driving it as part of a school event, when another vehicle had crashed into him.
Minutes later, we spotted Damien being rushed into A&E on a stretcher.
Although he had several bad injuries, we were told it was a miracle they weren’t more severe.
It was such a stressful
time for me and Will.
So, when Gabe began to get better in the following days, it felt like a weight had been lifted.
An MRI on his head
and neck showed
positive signs.
He was finally able to walk on his own again and keep food down.
‘He can be discharged now,’ a nurse smiled.
Damien was soon allowed home too.
Thank goodness
they’ll both be OK,
I thought.
But Gabe still had to wear a neck brace and
take several medications.
He wasn’t allowed to have screen time or run around and play with his friends.
As part of his recovery, we had to keep him calm so as not to stimulate his brain too much.
Before the accident, he had been such a social, outgoing child.
But now, he had became introverted and attached
to me.
‘He’s not the same any more,’
I said to Will sadly.
‘I’m sure in time he’ll get back to his old self,’ he replied.
Six weeks later, he was finally allowed to have his neck brace removed.
Soon, I got Gabe a child therapist to help him deal with his feelings.
We found out that two others suffered life-threatening injuries from the accident and 14 others were taken to hospital.
But thankfully, everyone recovered.
Will and I recently went back to the orchard to speak to the owner and the worker who
drove the tractor.
They were so apologetic.
‘We want you
to know that we don’t blame you,’ I told them.
‘It was just an accident.’
They got emotional, and I
was glad that we had put their minds at rest.
We even took Gabe back to the orchard, to remind him of the good times he’d had there.
It’s not going to stop us from letting him go on school trips in the future and making fun, valuable memories.
By Angie Mier, 46