A young Aussie has revealed how she had to have her lower leg amputated after a horror gardening accident just a week after her wedding.
Megan McKee, 33, suffered catastrophic injuries last month after her foot was run over by a riding mower at her new home in Paxton, in the Hunter Region of NSW.
Mrs McKee and her wife Stephanie Pascoe, 31, had only bought the house in the village of about 1,200 people six weeks earlier.
The newlyweds were mowing the nature strip in the front garden when the ride-on mower collided with an embankment, causing it to become unstable.
She remembered putting her foot on the grass before the riding mower ran over it.
Ms Pascoe was playing with Ms McKee’s toddler Parker on the grass when she heard a deafening scream, she said. Yahoo News.
‘I left the child and ran away. Her injuries were apparent very quickly,” she said.
‘I panicked. I didn’t really expect it to be that big.”
Megan McKee (pictured with wife Stephanie Pascoe) suffered catastrophic injuries after her foot was run over by a riding mower at her home in Paxton, in the Hunter Region of NSW
The 33-year-old was pictured moments before she was flown to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, where she underwent emergency surgery.
Mrs Pascoe remembers that the first thing her wife said to her was: ‘I’m dying’.
“Looking at her injuries and the amount of blood coming out at that point, it probably wasn’t a far-fetched thought,” she said.
‘It almost cut off her whole foot. It went between a second and third toe and then all the way to the ankle.”
Ms Pacoe said neighbors rushed to help, with one calling an ambulance and the other taking off her shirt to use her bra as a tourniquet.
Mrs McKee was flown to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle where she underwent emergency surgery.
Unfortunately, due to her horrific injuries, she was told the next morning that her lower leg would need to be amputated.
“(Ms. McKee) expected that, but I was very unprepared,” Ms. Pascoe said, adding that she also worried about how they would pay the hospital bills.
Mrs McKee and her wife Stephanie Pascoe, 31, had only bought their new home in the village of around 1,200 people six weeks before the accident.
The couple’s friend and wedding celebrant Sarah Chippindale created a GoFundMe for the couple, which has since raised $22,000.
She said the couple is spending their honeymoon in the hospital.
“On top of this physical and emotional journey, their lives have been completely transformed,” Ms Chippindale wrote of the campaign.
“This time of healing will obviously require their full attention, and financial burdens should not add to their concerns.
‘With longer hospital stays, surgeries, rehabilitation and time off on the horizon, Megs and Steph face a challenging road as they care for little Parker and manage their mortgage.
“They had so many plans going forward and now they’ve all shattered into a million pieces.”