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| Sarah Maskell "I love him to bits. I can't help myself. http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=28375 |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 19 Nov 06, 15:22 ] |
| Post subject: | Sarah Maskell "I love him to bits. I can't help myself. |
EXCLUSIVE: MUM-TO-BE 'THROWN FROM HOTEL BALCONY': MY STORY By Lori Campbell IT'S something of a miracle Sarah Maskell is alive today. The rusty metal spike she fell on missed her heart by less than a centimetre. She should have been dead - in fact she "died" twice as medics fought to save her life. Sarah plunged 25 feet on to the spike from a holiday apartment balcony in Crete - pushed off by her boyfriend, police say. The spike pierced her back beneath her left shoulder blade and came out of her chest under her right armpit. Having just missed her heart, the aorta - the body's main artery - was twisted around it several times. If the 3cm-wide metal had embedded in her chest just a fraction differently, medics say she would have been killed instantly. "They were astounded I was still alive," Sarah, 34, said yesterday, speaking for the first time about her ordeal five weeks ago. "It really was a miracle." Sarah's lover Michael Edwards has been charged by Crete police with her attempted murder. He is in jail on the island awaiting trial. She is back home with her mum in Aylesbury, Bucks, on her way to making a full recovery. Extraordinarily, she still loves him and wants him back. "I love him," she says. "I love him to bits. I can't help myself." She can't bring herself to believe Edwards pushed her, even though he had been violent to her before. She can't remember the fall, whether she was pushed or what caused the drunken row that led to it. And, after all she has been through, her first concern is for him. "I hope he's OK out there in jail. I wouldn't want him to be suffering," she says. "I want to believe he didn't push me. I need to see him, to find out what happened." Sarah tells how she and Edwards, 40, booked a sunshine holiday to Stalis, near the resort of Malia, to rekindle a turbulent romance. They argued a lot and Sarah admits that carpenter Edwards was violent and has beaten her up several times. As they prepared to go on holiday, Sarah was three months' pregnant and was looking forward to spending time away as a family, with Edwards and his four-year-old son Michael Jnr. She said: "We had been getting on really well. Michael was so happy when I told him I was pregnant, he really wanted a little girl. "His son had just started calling me 'mummy' which I loved, we were becoming a family. For the first time in ages I was happy." It wasn't to last. She said: "My last memory is sitting in the bar about 11pm. It was only our first night there. We had drunk a few glasses of wine each. There was bingo and Michael Jnr was helping a holiday rep call out the numbers. "I was so happy. That's why I can't understand how everything went so horribly wrong." Hotel guests heard Sarah and Edwards arguing in the moments before she fell at 2am. Then they heard a scream when Sarah fell out of the first floor balcony and on to the spike. Michael Jnr witnessed it all and allegedly told police: "Daddy was hitting mummy's head against the wall. Then she was in the bushes." Sarah said: "I'm so sad that he saw the whole thing. He's just a child and I love him to bits." Firefighters had to cut Sarah free, leaving the spike still in her. She was pronounced clinically dead twice, once at the scene and again in the ambulance, but paramedics gave her the kiss of life. She said: "I'm told the reps were holding me up to keep the pressure off until the ambulance arrived. The medics had to do mouth-to-mouth because they couldn't get to my chest to use the electric pumps. I don't remember anything until I woke up in hospital four days later." In fact, it wasn't until she was back in the UK, idly flicking through magazines while recovering at Wycombe Hospital, that she discovered the true extent of what had happened. She said: "My story had been all over the news but I had no idea. I saw my picture with the spike in me and burst out crying." The couple's life together appears to have been scarred by Edwards's jealousy, insecurity and desire for control. But, as so often in violent relationships, Sarah the victim has ended up blaming herself. Hearing her talk about Edwards is desperately sad. "Michael had his insecurities," she says. "He would take something I said about a guy the wrong way and get jealous. "He didn't like me being friends with my ex-boyfriends. "I ended up not going out or seeing friends at all. It meant we spent all our time together. "I didn't really mind that because it showed just how much he loved me. But we were at each others' throats more and more." Edwards got even more enraged when Sarah's sister Jayne was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She died in January. "All my energies were focused on her in the months before she died. That put a lot of strain on Michael and I. I would call my mum and ask for her help when he was being physical with me." But Sarah would always defend Edwards and tell her mum Rose, 54, she loved him. Rose begged her to end the destructive relationship which began two years ago after they met in a pub. Sarah refused, so the pair fell out and were barely on speaking terms. Sarah said she once ended up in hospital after a brutal row, but that her injuries were an accident. She said: "We had a heated row and I was upset. I cut a tendon on my wrist when I dropped a plate afterwards. It wasn't his fault." SARAH'S first proper memory after the fall is waking up in hospital in Heraklion, Crete's capital. She was so confused from the painkillers, she thought she was in hospital to give birth. Rose had flown out to Crete to be with her - the rift between them overtaken by the crisis. In a tragic scene, Sarah's first words to her mum were: "I've had a baby." In fact she had miscarried a few days before the holiday started. Sarah said: "I didn't know what had happened. I thought I must have been in labour. "I was so pleased to see my mum. She was asking for my forgiveness because we hadn't been getting on. "I said, 'I love you, Mum.' She told me I had been in an accident, but I didn't know any more." Eight days later, Sarah was well enough to be transferred by air ambulance to the UK. She said: "Before we left, I felt panicky and claustrophobic because of the neck brace and all the tubes. So I was sedated heavily for the flight." Rose only found out about the accident in a phone message from her ex-husband's mother, who had been tracked down by Greek police. "The words still send a chill right through me," Rose recalls. "She said, 'Rose, can you call urgently? Something's happened to Sarah.' "She gave me a number for the hospital and a doctor told me Sarah had fallen from a balcony and was in a critical condition." Rose flew to Crete the next day. "I had visions of her dying. I had been with Jayne until the end, and now I wanted to be with Sarah. "My biggest fear was that she would die before I got there, before I could say, 'I'm sorry. I love you.' "When I walked into intensive care and saw her, she looked a mess. There were so many tubes and machines around her. She had bandages all over her body. "Her face was bloated and her hands and feet were puffy. I held her hand and through my tears said, 'It's all right, I'm here. I love you.'" Remarkably, the only symptom Sarah suffers is occasional shortness of breath as she has just one good lung. It is the angry scars under her arm, which she lifts her top to show, which reveal the true horror she has been through. Edwards was refused bail and faces seven months in jail before he's tried in a Greek court. Sarah has had no contact with Edwards' family but insists she feels no anger towards him. She said: "Despite everything, I can't believe he would have done that. I honestly think we could have a future together." lori.campbell@sundaymirror.co.uk |
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