A mother-of-three almost died after breaking her neck when belly flopping into her garden pool — but she was miraculously saved by her quick-thinking son.
Gemma Allinson splashed out on a £400 14ft pool for her kids to enjoy during the summer of 2022, and entertained them with her gentle belly flops.
But the 42-year-old from East Riding, Yorkshire, suffered a devastating injury doing the playful manoeuvre.
On her last leap into the pool, Ms Allison broke her neck on impact and suffered a cardiac arrest, leaving her kids horrified when she remained face-down in the water.
She’s now urging people to be careful when jumping into cold and shallow water.
Gemma Allinson splashed £400 on a 14ft pool for her kids to enjoy during the summer months and was happy to join in playing in the water doing gentle belly flops
On her last leap into the pool, Ms Allison broke her neck on impact and suffered a cardiac arrest, leaving her kids, Cameron Todd (left), Daisy Allinson (centre) and Alfie Allinson (right), horrified when she remained face-down in the water
Her eldest son Cameron Todd, now 20, had been eating his dinner when Ms Allinson’s youngest daughter Daisy came inside to tell him his mum was not moving in the pool.
He rushed out to the garden and immediately tried to grab his mum out of the water, while younger brother Alfie, 10, ran to fetch neighbours to help.
With the help of neighbours, Mr Todd fished his mum out of the water and called for an ambulance, before sprinting to get a defibrillator from the nearby community centre.
Thankfully, an ambulance arrived within the next 10 minutes and Ms Allison was rushed to Hull Royal Infirmary where doctors discovered she had fractured a vertebrae in her neck and had water in her lungs.
After a month-long stint in hospital, the stay-at-home mum underwent a life-saving operation to remove the broken bone and insert a cage secured by two plates and two screws in the back of her neck to support it.
She then was moved to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield where she spent six months slowly recovering and learning how to walk, eat and go to the bathroom herself.
Ms Allinson’s eldest son Cameron Todd, now 20, had been eating his tea when Ms Allinson’s youngest daughter Daisy Allinson came inside to tell him his mum was not moving or talking in the pool. With the help of neighbours, Mr Todd fished his mum out of the water and began CPR, before someone took over so he could call an ambulance and sprint to get a defibrillator from the nearby community centre
After a four-week-stint in hospital, the stay-at-home mum underwent a life-saving op to remove the broken bone and insert a cage secured by two plates and two screws in the back of her neck to support it
‘I was just messing about and the next day I woke up with a tube down my throat,’ Ms Allinson said.
‘I didn’t know where the hell I was, what I was doing or what had happened. It was awful. I remember waking up, I just cried.
‘You shouldn’t really be jumping in shallow water, I’ve learned that lesson. Especially adults, it won’t matter for kids because they’re a bit smaller.
‘But I think grown men and grown women shouldn’t really be jumping in a pool because they’re hard underneath. A bang to your head, a bang to your body, you’ve damaged yourself.’
After reading her doctor’s notes, Ms Allinson now knows she had no pulse and was ‘dead’ for more than two minutes.
After reading her doctor’s notes, Ms Allinson now knows she had no pulse and was ‘dead’ for more than two minutes
She’s now urging people to be careful when jumping into cold and shallow water this summer
Ms Allinson was moved to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield where she spent six months slowly recovering and learning how to walk, eat and go to the bathroom herself
She said: ‘I couldn’t move. There were tubes down my throat and tubes down my nose, oxygen. I had a central line in my groin.
‘They [doctors] didn’t think I was going to be alive, they didn’t think I was going to walk again.
‘It was touch and go when I was really poorly because of the injury in my spine and my neck.
‘I had to learn to do everything again. I had to learn to eat, walk, look after myself, get dressed, wash myself.
‘I had a nose tube in to feed because I couldn’t eat.
‘I had a catheter in for a good five months so I had to learn to go to the toilet myself properly, get showers on my own, wash my hair on my own, brush my teeth.
‘Everybody had to do that for me because I couldn’t use my hands.’
Now two years on from the horror accident on July 19, 2022, she wears a leg brace and uses a mobility scooter to get around
She now suffers weakness down the right side of her body, and because she is right-handed, she had to learn how to do everything with her left hand
Now two years on from the horrorific accident, she wears a leg brace and uses a mobility scooter to get around.
She suffers weakness down the right side of her body and has had to learn how to do everything with her left hand.
Her right foot still doesn’t move as well as the left one, making it tricky for Ms Allinson to walk.
She also experiences constant burning, tingling and numbness in her legs.
Although it’s been hard, she says her children have helped her remain positive during recovery and her eldest son Mr Todd is now her legal carer.
It took her family a year to throw the pool away because nobody wanted to go near it after the near-fatality.
Her right foot still doesn’t move as well as the left one, making it tricky for Ms Allinson to walk properly and she relies on crutches to be able to go up and down stairs
She also experiences constant burning, tingling and numbness in her legs and uses a mobility scooter when out and about
She said: ‘Before my accident I had no health problems, I was fit as a fiddle.
‘I used to run around in my car and do the school run. You name it, I did everything.
‘I’ve just learnt to do that again but in a different way because I’m on crutches now and I’ve got a splint on my leg that I have to wear everyday.
‘It’s harder to live really, I just carry on. It’s not nice.
‘My kids have really helped me through my recovery and being able to soldier on with things.’
Recently she was able to take her children on holiday to Butlins on her own and even go swimming with them. Even though she cannot swim in deep water, and needs help getting into the pool, this is something she never would have been able to imagine herself doing two years ago
Although it’s been hard, she says her children have helped her remain positive during recovery and her eldest son Mr Todd is now her legal carer
Ms Allinson says she desperately wants to be able to drive again, and recently re-took her driving test in a mobility car and passed.
She was able to take her children on holiday to Butlins on her own and even go swimming with them.
Even though she cannot swim in deep water, and needs help getting into the pool, this is something she never would have been able to imagine herself doing two years ago.
She said: ‘It’s great because I don’t depend on anybody.
‘If I can do it the way I am, then anyone can do it basically. It’s hard going but I’ve learned to live like this.
‘I can’t do half the stuff I used to do but I give it a good go.
‘You’ve just got to stay positive. You’ve just got to carry on and keep your mindset as positive as you can and just keep going.
‘When I was in hospital there were people coming in with pool injuries. I wasn’t the only one.
‘You see these people putting pools up and they’re jumping in and having fun. I can’t knock that because that’s exactly how I was, having fun.
‘But when I see it now, I’m like don’t do that, don’t jump in like that.
‘It’s just a reminder of what I’ve done but all you can say is just be careful.’
