PHONE CALL SAVED MUM’S LIFE
Lethal shrapnel was deflected by mobile
A MUM’S life was saved by her phone when it deflected a flying metal nut in the Manchester bombing.
Lisa Bridgett, 45, was talking on her mobile after the Ariana Grande gig when shrapnel from the explosion hit her.
The nut chopped off her middle finger but then bounced off the phone through her cheek and into her nose.
Her husband Steve, 45, said she was “very lucky to be alive”.
He added: “The fact that she was on the phone at the time probably saved her life. The nut has hit her phone, which has more than likely not only diverted it, but also slowed it down considerably.
“She will make a full recovery although I don’t think the finger will grow back!” Lisa, a boatyard manager from Pwllheli, Gwynedd, was at the concert with her daughter, who was with a friend.
She had surgery after suffering multiple injuries, including a fractured ankle and a large wound to her thigh.
Meanwhile, a mum and daughter told how they survived because they stopped “for 30 seconds” to put on their coats. Lisa Arnott, 42, and her girl Jade, 15, were heading towards the foyer when the bomb went off.
The pair were peppered with shrapnel and left covered in blood.
Lisa, from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, had asked Jade to wait while she put on her jacket.
She said: “That 30 seconds saved our lives. As we walked into the foyer there was just a huge bang and an orange light, my ears were ringing, it was smoky. It was horrific, just horrific, I saw people lying all over the floor.”
Wheelchair user Klicea-Nicole Richardson told how two mystery men carried her to safety.
The brave pair ignored the risk of further explosions and carefully lifted the 20-year-old down the Arena steps.
The college student, from Stockport, said: “I’d just like to thank them personally for possibly saving my life.”
Hospital bosses said yesterday that 116 casualties had been treated, with 23 in critical care.
Jon Rouse, from Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, said that some of the victims had suffered “lifechanging injuries”.