A horrified mum captured on her phone the exact moment her teenage son fractured his spine whilst tombstoning at a Welsh beauty spot. Lindsay Wilson was holidaying in Pembrokeshire with her family last week when they decided to pay a visit to the Blue Lagoon.
The site at Abereiddy in Pembrokeshire is an old quarry that's long been a popular place for those wishing to leap from its high slate walls into the deep water below. The 41-year-old NHS worker from Bradford said her son Sam had already taken the 30 plus foot plunge once and, upon climbing back up to jump a second time, she pulled out her mobile to film him.
However, Lindsay knew something had gone badly wrong shortly after he emerged from the water, having hit the surface hard in a "slightly seated position." She described seeing the 16-year-old as having "turned pale" as he clung to the rocks in clear distress, reports Wales Online.
"Sam's a big lad for 16 and a fantastic swimmer so we didn't think anything was up initially," said Lyndsay, who was later told that the impact from that height was the equivalent of 'smacking onto concrete'. "There were others in the lagoon at the same time and we just thought he was just waiting for them to get out first.
"But then we could see he'd turned pale and was holding onto the rocks." She added that a woman called Tessa from Celtic Quest Coasteering, a local outdoors adventure group which had also been in the water, swam over to Sam.
"She got him on his back and, using a paddleboard as a makeshift stretcher, a few of them swam him over to the shore. We're so grateful to them for doing that, I can't imagine what might have happened otherwise."
The teenager was then then airlifted away from the cliffs by a coastguard helicopter to a waiting ambulance before being transferred to hospital in Carmarthen later that afternoon (Tuesday, August 2). There the consultants sent Sam for a CT scan which showed that he had a spinal fracture which would require him to wear a body brace.
"When he was first checked out he must have still been in shock because he told doctors that he couldn't feel any pain in his back - so it's a good job they were so thorough and insisted he have the scan," added Lindsay. "We're just hoping that the injury will heal itself over time and he won't need any surgery."
"In the meantime me and his dad are sleeping on his bedroom floor to make sure he has everything he needs should he wake up in the middle of the night. He should be enjoying his school summer break at the moment, instead he's in terrible pain and can barely move.
She said, "I just want to make sure everyone realises the risks of this sort of thing and ensure no one else has to go through what we've been through. But, given there were still kids jumping off the ledge into the water after Sam had his accident, I'm worried that warning's falling on deaf ears."
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