Battered And Bruised By A Branch
A normal school PE lesson ended with Joanne’s girl in hospital...
Glancing at the clock, I shouted up the stairs. ‘Come on, girls! Time to leave for school!’ It used to be just my eldest daughter, Georgia, 15, who took ages getting ready in a morning.
But, since her younger sister, Chloe, had turned 13, she’d become more interested in how she looked, too.
I shouted up again, and they came clattering downstairs in a cloud of hairspray.
Looking at the weather, I wondered how long all their preening would last.
It was June, but the weather reports said to expect rain and strong winds.
‘It’s horrible out there, so please be careful,’ I warned them.
‘We will,’ they chorused, kissing me goodbye before dashing out.
After dropping off my youngest, TJ, 10, at primary school, I went home to do some chores.
At 2pm, my partner, Mark Taylor, 42, arrived home. He’d been on the early shift at his job at the steel-fabrication plant.
I made us both a cup of tea and, as we sat chatting, my mobile phone went.
It was a teacher from Clifton Community School, where the girls both went.
Chloe had got her nose hurt during a PE lesson. They said it wouldn’t stop bleeding, so they’d called an ambulance. ‘Tell her I’m on my way,’ I said. As Mark drove, I wasn’t overly worried. I thought the teachers were probably just being cautious calling an ambulance.
The paramedics were already there when we arrived, and I was led to the room where they were treating Chloe.
When I saw her, I gasped with shock.
Her nose looked as if it had been sliced in two! The left side of her face was severely grazed, and her left eye was bruised and swollen shut.
‘Mum!’ she cried, her voice shaky and scared. ‘I’m here, love,’ I soothed. But I was so squeamish, I suddenly felt I was going to faint.
‘You’re going to have to go in. I can’t do it,’ I told Mark, sinking onto a chair.
Thankfully, I was brave enough to go in the ambulance with her, and Mark followed in the car.
By now, Chloe was shaking with shock.
‘What happened?’ I asked, holding her hand.
‘We were doing PE outside, and were all lined up under some trees,’ she explained. ‘A big branch snapped off in the wind and hit me in the face.’
She’d blacked out for a bit. And, when she came round, the teacher was holding a jumper to her face to stem the bleeding.
Arriving at hospital, Chloe was taken for X-rays. Amazingly, nothing was broken.
The nurses had to keep changing the dressings, as her nose was still bleeding heavily.
Chloe was admitted and, after they’d settled her on a ward, a surgeon explained that she’d need an op to stitch together the deep, jagged cut to her nose.
‘We’re going to clean it all out and put it back together,’ he said.
My stomach lurched, but Chloe was so brave. She didn’t even cry when they took her down to theatre the next morning.
‘See you soon,’ I said, giving her
Her nose looked as if it had been sliced in two!
a kiss before she was taken away.
The op took almost two hours, and Chloe had over 30 stitches, snaking from the edge of her left eyebrow to the tip of her nose. It was clear she’d be scarred for life.
‘Oh, my God! I look awful,’ she wept, looking in the mirror.
Later that day, Chloe was discharged – but my relief soon turned to anger. That branch could’ve killed her. ‘They shouldn’t have been out in those gales, let alone under a tree,’ I fumed.
But I had to concentrate on looking after Chloe.
A week later, she had the stitches out.
‘Will there be a scar?’ she asked.
‘I’m afraid so,’ the doctor said, prescribing cream to help it fade.
Now my girl’s wounds have healed, but she’ll sadly bear the scars forever.
But Chloe’s been so brave through it all.
I’m a very proud mum. www.pickmeupmagazine.co.uk