AUSTRALIA (CNN/Nine News) - A young mother in Australia suffered severe bruising and cuts that left her hospitalized, while shielding her 4-month-old daughter from a hailstorm.
Fiona Simpson, 23, says she didn’t realize how dangerous hail was, so when she, her daughter Clara and her grandmother were trapped in a storm, she thought they could ride it out in the car.
But it quickly became apparent just how violent this storm was.
"It just got heavier and heavier and heavier, and next thing I know, the back window blows out,” Simpson said.
The driver’s side window also shattered, sending glass and hail flying everywhere. Simpson could hear Clara screaming.
"So, I jumped in the backseat and just covered her with my body, hoping for it to pass. But it just got heavier,” Simpson said. “The hail was coming in, and I put her on the floor because that was the only place where there was no hail hitting because it was coming in sideways.”
In the end, the mother was rewarded for her efforts to protect her child. Baby Clara suffered only a few scratches.
But Simpson and her grandmother were left with heavy bruising and cuts, such serious injuries that they had to spend the night in the hospital.
Even so, Simpson says it was all worth the sacrifice.
"You can replace a car; you can’t replace a life. It could have been a lot worse, that’s for sure,” she said.
Copyright 2018 CNN, Nine News Australia, Fiona Simpson. All rights reserved.
