The Day Of The Accident: Part 3

No less enthusiastic I got on the trampoline and listened attentively to my instructor. I started off practising my ball outs (back drop front somersault to feet) because I struggled to land them standing up. Often I would land them in a squat position.  Yet again I landed them in the usual squat.  This was actually an improvement from when I once face-planted the trampoline doing a ball out. I was left with lines across my forehead from the fabric of the bed and a few minor cuts around my eye and on my nose and chin. Despite that mishap I got back on the trampoline still smiling.

Another time I injured myself trampolining was when I was doing a double front somersault and kneed myself in the nose. I was left with a pretty bad nosebleed. Again I fought through the blood and continued trampolining.

Then I moved onto doing my well-polished back somersault barani combination.  On my second one my barani went horribly wrong.  One minute I was up in the air, having taken off badly from my back somersault, and the next I was coming crashing down onto the trampoline. Fighting to protect my head, my hands instinctively flew up. A massive cracking noise resonated around the sports hall, ricocheting off the walls as I collided with the bed. A second later I was lying down on my back on the trampoline (many of my friends and family thought I had completely fallen off the trampoline but if that was the case then I’m pretty sure I would now either be dead or paralysed).

I can’t remember how I ended up on my back but I did know something certainly wasn’t right. My instructor was beside me in a flash asking how I felt and what pain I was in. Slightly confused I lifted my head and saw that she was supporting my left arm, which was bent at an odd angle. It was strange because my arm was bent up like normal but my forearm was bent facing away from me. That was when the reality and the pain began to sink. My arm was well and truly broken.

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