Black Friday nightmare!
Well first of all I really had no intention of going out to this years Black Friday.
My sister came buy with my niece and invited us to go out and accompany them to the local mall.
And since being full from eating dinner that night I thought it being a good idea to walk it off a bit.
So My daughter and I thought a good idea to go and check out the apple store to see what deals they were going to be having.
We showed up around 9 pm and to find no one hanging around, so we decided this was perfect,
first in line great!
Just outside the store was an outside area with tables and chairs with free wifi what else could we want to pass the time it was quite chilly that night so I encouraged my 9 year old daughter to walk around a bit to warm up.
Well we weren't there but maybe 15 minutes when I heard a terrible blood curdling scream from my daughter coming from a few feet from me.
I rushed to see my daughter underneath hundreds of pounds of cement from an outdoor fountain that fell over on top of her.
I quickly fell to my knees and tried lifting this from her two feet which were pinned underneath.
She was screaming and I also was screaming for her to pull her feet out.
As much as I tried, I could not budge that heavy cement off her feet, it was so heavy!
All I could think was that her poor feet were broken from the weight. By some miracle she pulled her feet out.
Still screaming and crying and wet from the water from this gigantic contraption.
I dragged her to a bench nearby.
By then there were three girls there. I guess they were waiting down the way by one of the nearby stores.
One girl offered to call 911 and another offering my daughter a blanket.
Within minutes it seemed the paramedics were there assisting my daughter.
At the time when my daughter had all that heavy cement on top her I felt so helpless and desperate that I couldn't lift it off her.
I thought her feet were broken.
I couldn't understand how an innocent night could turn into a nightmare from hell!
I had never felt so scared and worried as a mother in my whole life! I felt like a complete failure as a nurturing mother to let something like this happen.
Come to find out what really happened was that my daughter was reaching up with her feet to see if she could get a better look into the fountain to see the coins from atop the upper level of the fountain and the lower base gave way.
This certain water fountain was quite not affixed to the other half which made the whole structure give way.
As unlucky as this night was , the paramedics did mention that she was lucky that she was not right in front of the fountain but she was standing on the side of the fountain.
So if she was in front of it, it would of fell on top her head which would of led to worse injuries maybe even death!
Today is Saturday night she is safe at home with me and alive and very much traumatized from this accident.
She has been having terrible nightmares at night and I feel so terrible for her.
My poor little girl , I wish we would had never been out that night and Safe in our own home.
But who was to know what that night was to be.
After departing from the mall the paramedics took us both to the hospital my daughter still crying they took x-rays to find out no broken bones.
I was in utter shock and disbelief and relieved at the same time. Witnessing what i had seen that night I COULDN'T BELIEVE HER feet were not broken.
She did leave the hospital with crutches and a brace for one of her feet. She did have a torn muscle and sprain.
The next day I awoke to pain so severe in my back and I felt like a truck had hit me.
I went to the doctors and found out I pulled my back when trying to lift that heavy cement off my daughter.
My daughter though much worse of course.
When all this was done and behind us,
I cannot understand how a shopping mall would allow for an outside structure like that fountain was not affixed to the building or the ground and not stable?
I am very concerned and puzzled how an accident like this could had been avoided? This was a catastrophe waiting to happen.
If the public happens to come across my story I wish to thank those wonderful young girls who were out that night at the Vintage Faire Mall located in Modesto Ca. Right near the Apple store
And also those two men from the paramedics that were so helpful and caring thank you so much!
If you happen to be at the mall outside of the area where I have described, you will see the fountain gone and can no longer be a liability to ones safety.
This fountain is not the one that fell on my daughter but I just wanted to show an example of the weight of what one might be
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