A bride wore her wedding dress to A&E and willed new husband to ‘stay with her’ on their wedding night after he plummeted through a banister and fell 12ft to the ground.
Newlywed Avril Mallon, 43, was enjoying one last drink when a hotel porter ran past her screaming that someone ‘had fallen’ and he was ‘going to call an ambulance’.
Avril’s husband, Chris Mallon, 49, had plummeted 12ft to the ground after falling through a bannister.
Panicked Avril found her husband in a pool of blood – desperately trying to lift himself up from the ground.
She held her hand under his head to stop the bleeding while she sobbed over him – willing him to ‘stay with her’.
When the ambulance arrived, Avril attempted to head upstairs change out of her wedding dress but the police stopped her, informing her it was a ‘crime scene’.
Avril had no choice but to go to A&E wearing her blood-stained wedding dress.
Groom Chris was put in an induced coma the day after the accident and didn’t wake up for eight days.
Chris suffered three skull fractures, a broken back, a fractured and dislocated shoulder, a broken right hand and badly bruised heart and lungs.
The couple revealed the unbelievable story to the Real Fix podcast, which helps people share their own stories, in their own words.
Avril from East Calder, West Lothian, Scotland, said: “When anybody mentions the word ‘wedding’ that’s immediately what I think of. I don’t think of the special day we had.
“I was having a wee glass at the reception and the next thing I know, the porter’s running so fast and screaming at us and shouting: ‘He’s fallen, I’m going to go get an ambulance’.
“I was first on the scene and Chris was actually trying to lift himself up.
“He was so delusional I was holding his head trying to stop the blood and I just kept on saying to him ‘stay with me, stay with me’ it was unbelievable.
“It was so surreal just holding him and thinking: ‘This can’t be you know this is my wedding day this doesn’t happen’.
“I just kept on holding his hand I had my hand under his head and i just kept on saying stay with me stay with me because he was in and out of consciousness.”
Chris added: “I tripped up and I could see the gap coming towards me but because I had things in my hand I didn’t stop myself from falling.
“I just remember falling towards the gap and thinking: ‘Oh dear, this is going to be sore’.”
The next thing Avril knew, she was surrounded by police and paramedics who told her they needed to take Chris to hospital.
Avril tried to go upstairs to change out of her wedding dress before going to the hospital – but he wasn’t allowed.
She said: “I started walking up the stairs and he stopped me and said: ‘You can’t, this is a crime scene’ and I was like: ‘Oh my god I can’t go to hospital like this’.
“He said ‘You’re not allowed this is a crime scene’ and right away I was thinking, a crime scene? Do you think I’ve pushed him off?
“It was an out of body experience because it was the happiest day of my life but then absolutely shattering.
“I remember seeing his mum as well. She was constantly praying and saying take me, don’t take my son.
“We were sitting in A&E in my wedding dress which was unreal.”
Doctors revealed to Avril that it was going to take a long time for Chris to recover and that the newlyweds wouldn’t be going on their honeymoon.
Avril said: “I was like ‘this can’t be real’, it was like an out of body experience.
“I just thought this is our wedding day, surely this can’t be happening.
“It wasn’t until the ambulance arrived and they were working on him that I was actually thinking to myself ‘what’s just happened?'”
The next time Avril saw her husband, he was in an induced coma.
She said: “It was absolutely horrendous, it was a rollercoaster, I’ve not prayed so much in my life.
“I just kept on like holding his hand, I was talking to him and I was asking for the angels and speaking to God and because we’ve got a wee boy as well… it’s like… Alex needs you.”
“I was there every time they were trying to bring him back, but he wasn’t strong enough and he couldn’t breathe on his own.
“When he got the tube out he was very delusional and confused.”
When Chris woke up from the coma, he couldn’t remember that he had got married and the injury had a lasting impact on his brain.
Avril said: “didn’t know what we were married
“It was really upsetting, both myself and his mum cried at that, I was so happy that he was through and he was awake but then we were scared at just the extent of his injury.
“When he left the hospital we were over the moon but we didn’t realise that we were then dealing with brain injury, that was mentioned but there wasn’t a focus on it so we were unaware of just how different things would be.”
Chis added: “I didn’t really realise at the time I tended to be angry more than I had ever been and that was.
“It sort of surprised me and it wasn’t until one point I had a very big argument that I sought help from somebody and I was able to see a psychologist and talk.”
But Chris said he is lucky to be alive: “I’ve got a loving and supporting family, no much more so than Avril and they stood by me. They’ve helped me throughout that so I’m very very lucky.”
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