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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Bradley Stokes & Laura Sharman

Brave mum trapped under car after hit-and-run saves unborn baby using her fingernails

A mum who was mown down by a hit-and-run driver and trapped under the car managed to save her unborn baby by clawing herself to safety by her fingernails.

Aaliyah Lunn, 23, was with friends when she was run over by a silver Volvo which deliberately ploughed into a crowd of pub goers in Stourbridge, West Midlands.

She was pinned under the car with the wheels spinning inches from her head while the weight of the front axle pressed down on her six-month baby bump.

Incredibly, despite suffering horrific injuries to her foot, Aaliyah saved her unborn baby by wriggling under the car.

Driver Jack Richardson, 25, had smashed into the crowd in a targeted attack after shooting a love rival with a BB gun.

Aaliyah Lunn and her son Shay (Leila Coker / SWNS)

The shocking crash happened as revellers gathered to watch England's Euros clash with Scotland on TV at the Gigmill pub on June 18 last year.

Richardson fled the scene but handed himself in two days later and admitted a string of violent offences.

Aaliyah was left bed bound but despite her injuries she gave birth to a baby boy just five weeks after the horror crash.

Last week she bravely attended Wolverhampton Crown Court on crutches and watched as Richardson was jailed for five years and three months.

Speaking after the case, Aaliyah, of Stourbridge, said: “We’d gone to the pub to celebrate another of my friends who was pregnant.

Jack Richardson was jailed for five years and three months (West Midlands Police / SWNS)
Aaliyah said “whether he was sentenced to 100 years" nothing will make her feel better (Leila Coker / SWNS)

“We settled down, there was kids everywhere. At the time England were playing Scotland on TV so it was busy but everyone was having a great time.

“Suddenly I saw Jack who I know through friends of friends. He pulled out a gun, the sound of this gun sounded like an actual gun but it was a BB gun.

“He shot a man I know around three times in the leg. Everyone, including the kids at the pub, were running around screaming.

“Jack left the pub and I went outside to go home but then this car reversed at high speed towards me.

The heavily pregnant mum was mown down and trapped under the car (SWNS)

“I tried to run up the stairs to get safe but I was too late the car hit me and just went over the top of me.

“At first I didn’t feel any pain. I must have been going in and out of consciousness.

“When I came to, all I could see were the car tyres above me still spinning. All I could remember was saying to myself ‘I am going to die and ‘what about my baby’.

“I had no other option to wriggle myself further under the car to get free.

“Both of my legs were totally numb and my foot was hanging off. I had to use my fingernails to drag myself from underneath the car.

Aaliyah's scars after her near fatal incident (Leila Coker / SWNS)

“The car could have come down on me at any moment and I was screaming and shouting.

“When I was finally out from under the car I just lay on the ground feeling my stomach but I couldn’t feel my baby moving.

“I thought I had lost my baby and had lost my foot. I was drifting in out of consciousness. I was just screaming ‘my baby, my baby, it is not moving, somebody please help me.’

“Then there were armed police all around me. My foot was in pieces, I had a seven-inch gap on my foot and it was hanging off.”

Shay is now eight months old (Leila Coker / SWNS)

Aaliyah was rushed to Russell Hall Hospital in Dudley and underwent emergency surgery to save her baby.

Luckily, the impact of the crash did not do lasting damage and five weeks later she gave birth to 7lbs 3oz Shay Bustin.

Aaliyah, who also has a five-year-old daughter Sienna Mai, added: “I was put in the emergency trauma unit while my foot was being strapped up.

“I had snapped every single nerve and tendon in my foot. It will never get back to normal. The main tendon that connects your toe to your knee cap was snapped in half.

Aaliyah thought she had lost her baby and her foot (Leila Coker / SWNS)

“The baby at this point was stable. After the surgery on my foot, I was bed bound for six weeks and had to have carers four times a day.”

Shay, who is now eight months old, now has a tilted neck and breathing problems as a result of the trauma suffered by his mum following the crash.

Aaliyah added: “Because I was bed bound, and in so much pain, the baby had stopped growing and I could not have him naturally because my foot was still in a cast. I had to have a caesarean.

“Where he was positioned in my womb, his one muscle on his neck is shorter than the other. His neck and head are tilted to the left.

Richardson flew into a jealous rage after seeing his ex-partner’s new boyfriend in the pub (SWNS)

“He is undergoing physiotherapy to try and straighten up his neck and still has difficulties breathing.

“There are a lot of ongoing problems. He is constantly poorly. He may have to be transferred to Birmingham’s Children Hospital to help straighten his neck.

“As for my foot, I still have to use crutches and there is not much movement in my foot. My tendons are still tight.”

Richardson, of Stourbridge, flew into a jealous rage after seeing his ex-partner’s new boyfriend in the pub.

The driver deliberately ploughed into a crowd of pub goers in Stourbridge (SWNS)

He admitted two counts of grievous bodily harm, two counts of actual bodily harm, possession of an imitation firearm with intent, possession of cannabis, driving without insurance.

Aaliyah added: “Whether he was sentenced to 100 years, nothing is going to make me feel any better.

"The damage is done. I am going to have to live with that damage for the rest of my life.

“I hate Jack for what he has done. My son suffered for the first few weeks of his life all because of one man and his actions.

“I have been left with total damage in my foot, you could stab a knife through my foot and I would not feel it.

“I am glad he is behind bars. It is what he deserves.”

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