A mother captured on video the moment her 16-year-old son fractured his spine after tombstoning more than 30 feet into a lake in a Welsh former quarry.
Lindsay Wilson and her son Sam were visiting the beauty spot in Abereiddy, Pembrokeshire, when her son sustained the dramatic injury last week.
The 41-year-old NHS nurse was photographing her kid as he leapt from the quarry’s edge, striking the water with the power of falling on concrete. The 41-year-old NHS nurse was photographing her kid as he leapt from the quarry’s edge, striking the water with the power of falling on concrete. Ms Wilson realized her kid was in peril moments after he entered the water in a’slightly sitting posture’ and had ‘become pale’ when he returned to the surface.
Before several other swimmers came to his aid, the teenager was able to cling to rocks at the quarry’s edge.
‘Sam’s a large guy for 16 and a brilliant swimmer, so we didn’t believe anything was awry at first,’ she told Wales Online. There were other people in the lagoon at the same time, so we assumed he was simply waiting for them to go first. But then we noticed he’d turned pale and was clutching the rocks.’
According to Ms Wilson, a lady from a local outdoor adventure organization swam across to her kid.
Tessa from Celtic Quest Coasteering, she claimed, was fantastic in assisting her kid. ‘She put him on his back and a number of them swam him across to the beach using a paddleboard as a makeshift stretcher,’ she said. We’re very thankful to them; I can’t fathom what would have happened if they hadn’t.’
The adolescent was flown by a coastguard helicopter to an ambulance, which sent him to a hospital in Carmarthen, where he received a CT scan. Doctors revealed the youngster had a spinal fracture and required a body brace.
‘When he was initially 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 thing they were so thorough and insisted he have the scan,’ Ms Wilson said of her son’s injuries. We’re simply praying that the injuries will heal on its own and that he won’t require surgery.’
Ms Wilson said that she and Sam’s father sleep on the floor of his bedroom at night in case he needs anything.’
Ms Wilson said that she wanted everyone to watch her son’s film so they wouldn’t take the same danger of tombstoning from a tremendous height.
Despite his injuries, she added, other children at the quarry proceeded to jump into the water only minutes after the rescue.
