A young mother is lucky to be alive after a massive tree hit her and broke her neck in two places, with doctors fearing she may be paralysed.
Stevie Virtue, 30, was heading home after picking up her daughter Paityn from school in Dingley Village in Melbourne’s south-east last month.
The mother of two was walking back to her car when a massive tree on nearby private property knocked her to the ground, landing four metres on her head.
The tree was uprooted by strong winds that have hit parts of Australia’s east coast, including Victoria and New South Wales, in recent weeks.
Ms Virtue, who works as a hairdresser and disability support worker, fractured her C3 and CV vertebrae and also suffered a concussion.
“I remember the tree was on top of me. I remember crying and yelling at my daughter to go get (help). It was terrifying,” she said. Yahoo.
Ms Virtue recalled being unable to move and fearing for her seven-year-old daughter’s life after a branch snapped and missed the little girl by two seconds.
“The lollipop lady came over, grabbed my arm and helped me crawl away from the tree so nothing else would fall on me,” Virtue said.
Ms Virtue (pictured), who works as a hairdresser and disability support worker, broke her C3 vertebra and CV vertebra and also suffered a concussion as a result of the horror incident.
She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors feared Virtue might be paralyzed.
Ms Virtue is now unable to move for the next three months and has to wear a rigid neck brace.
She said it could have been much worse and there was a “one in a million” chance that the tree did not fall on any other part of her body.
She was discharged from the hospital a week after the horrific incident.
She is currently unable to work or care for her children.
“It’s a nightmare. I’m not allowed to lift anything that weighs more than a kilo. I feel useless,” says Virtue.
She also has trouble sleeping and is unable to care for her elderly mother, who has a disability.
The mother-of-two was thrown to the ground by the huge tree (pictured), which fell on her head, as she walked to her car.
Kelly Beverly, a close family friend, has created a GoFundMe Page to help financially support the family.
“This is understandably causing her great emotional and mental turmoil as she (Ms. Virtue) takes this time to heal,” Beverly wrote.
‘It will also affect his partner, Addison, as she tries to maintain some routine and normality for the girls and support Stevie as much as possible.’
The proceeds will be used to help cover household expenses and help the family maintain their daily routines as much as possible.
In an update shared on Monday, Ms Beverly revealed that her friend has constant orthopedic appointments.
“This will require her to travel into the city, which is not ideal when you have lost your independence to drive for 12 weeks,” she wrote.
‘While you struggle to adapt your usual busy lifestyle to a more suitable one for now, unfortunately your body is showing you in other ways that you need to slow down even more.
‘The strained muscles and the pain that now radiates to different parts of her body are something that really frustrates her.
Ms Virtue (pictured right) said she feared for the life of her seven-year-old daughter, Paityn (pictured centre), after a branch snapped and nearly hit her.
A slow-moving low pressure system has caused wild weather over the past few days, with parts of Victoria hit by damaging wind gusts of up to 130km/h.
Destructive winds downed trees and power lines, cutting off access to roads and electricity.
The weather system also caused scattered showers in parts of southern Australia and produced dangerous surf conditions along the east coast.