Freak accident girls thanks to nurse

Jade Amison, aged 16, suffered a horror injury when her bicycle collided with a taxi at low speed on Pye Green Road close to its junction with Cemetery Road, in Chadsmoor, Cannock, earlier this month. Her right leg was impaled on the handlebars, severing the main artery.

Doctors later said the artery was hanging by a thread and her leg would have had to be amputated had it been completely cut.

Luckily for Jade, Alison Hillman, aged 39, a heart failure specialist nurse at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, was driving past just after the accident.

Mrs Hillman, of Spring Street, Cannock, said: "I was driving to Cannock Chase with my family to walk our dogs when I saw an accident had just happened.

"I pulled over to see if my help was needed. Someone said there were already two nurses at the scene. I noticed the amount of blood. It was absolutely pouring out of her.

"I tried to find where it was coming from and discovered it was the side of her leg. I just put pressure on it to stem the flow of blood. There were an awful lot of people helping her, it wasn't just me.

"Jade was slipping in and out of consciousness but was very brave. Although the paramedic arrived quickly it took a long time before the ambulance and air ambulance turned up."

Mrs Hillman also praised local taxi drivers who quickly blocked off the road to ensure no-one else was hit.

Former Blake Valley Technology College student Jade found out on Thursday she had passed all her GCSEs and is now set to study public services at Cannock College before hopefully beginning Army training in Harrogate. She said: "I am really pleased to meet Alison again. I really wanted to say thank you for what she did."