Mom Acted as Human Shield for Baby During Crazy Storm

Queensland 23-year-old has now been nominated for a bravery award
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 15, 2018 10:25 AM CDT
Mom Acted as Human Shield for Baby During Crazy Storm
In this image made from video, Fiona Simpson holds her baby in Kumbia, Queensland, on Friday.   (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP)

An Australian mother who shielded her daughter from hail during a storm last week has now been nominated for a bravery award, ABC Australia reports. "She's one of the bravest people I've read of lately," said Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a press conference Sunday at which Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would recommend Fiona Simpson for the award. Simpson, 23, was driving home Thursday with her 4-month-old daughter and 78-year-old grandmother when it started raining. As the rain started to come down harder, she pulled over. Then, it started to hail—and the hail shattered the window next to the infant. That's when Simpson decided to act as a human shield for the baby, shielding the girl with her own body and later trying to also help her grandmother when hail broke the front window of the car.

The trio was caught in a "supercell thunderstorm," a rare type of storm featuring a "persistent rotating updraft called a mesocyclone," per Weather.gov. It caused giant hail and a tornado, per WeatherWatch; ABC has pictures of the Queensland havoc. Simpson and her grandmother both suffered significant bruising, and the skin on one of the grandmother's arms was shredded. The infant, though, just ended up with some small bumps, though Simpson says she was screaming in terror during the incident "but I couldn't even hear her, it was just so loud." Simpson says she's been overwhelmed with supportive messages since her story made headlines: "People are offering to help, offering to send me ointments and creams, offering to buy me a massage, a few insurance companies have offered to replace my car." (This mom saved a pregnant mom and her toddler from drowning.)

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