A mother-of-five has told how she feared she had lost her unborn child after falling down a 20ft drain.
Andrea Harris, who was five months pregnant, was walking with her three-year-old twin girls when she kicked the cover of an unsecured manhole on Boydstone Road in Lochwinnoch and fell down the manhole last July.
The 35-year-old was taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock after her partner Stuart managed to pull her out of the drain.
Shockingly, Andrea feared losing her unborn child after bruising her ribs and painful abdominal hematoma in the fall.
Andrea, who gave birth to her healthy baby Rayne in November last year, is now embroiled in an ongoing battle to determine who is responsible for maintaining the faulty drain and conducting a repair.
Andrea Harris, who was five months pregnant, was walking with her three-year-old twin girls when she kicked the cover of an unsecured manhole on Boydstone Road, Lochwinnoch and fell down. She is pictured with Baby Rayne at the drain
She said: “Nobody wants to take responsibility.” I’ve been working with Renfrewshire Council and other organizations for almost a year. I’ve never received an apology.’
“I’m incredibly lucky that my baby and I didn’t get hurt any more.” But that should never have happened in the first place.
“I’m being referred by various organizations with no one able to tell me who is responsible for the Well.” That’s what really pisses me off.’
Andrea had just put her twins Khloe and Keeva in her partner Stuart’s car when the freak accident happened on July 22 last year.
She said, “I was chatting with the girls and the next thing I knew I just got stuck there.” I obviously hit the back of my foot on the drain and the lid flipped over.
“My arms hung over it, but my body fell into the hole.” Without the lid, I would have gone all the way down. It’s about 20 feet deep and has water at the bottom.
“I was screaming and my partner was looking for me.” The children were hysterical.
“My baby bump bounced off the rungs in the hole.” Luckily, my partner managed to pull me out and drive me straight to the hospital’s maternity ward to have the baby checked out.
Andrea fell 20 feet down the drain. She was taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock after her partner Stuart managed to pull her out of the shaft (pictured).
Shockingly, Andrea feared losing her unborn child after bruising her ribs and painful abdominal hematoma in the fall. She also sustained injuries to her leg (pictured)
“When we got there, they said I had to go to the emergency room too to be checked out because I was in so much pain. Luckily Rayne looked okay, but I was supposed to go back immediately if I started bleeding or had any stabbing pains.
“I had bruised ribs and hematomas on my stomach. I was in absolute agony. I could barely walk for days.’
Andrea, from Kilwinning, shared how the incident had a lasting impact on the family.
She said, “Now if we go outside and there’s a drain, my twins who were with me that day will walk around it.” They’re petrified because they obviously watched me sink.
“Even if I had seen this exact manhole, there’s no way I would have walked over it.” The concrete around the manhole was crumbling, so obviously no maintenance had been done for some time.
“I’m just glad it was me walking the grass and not the twins because I didn’t need to think about that.”
Scottish Water and Transport Scotland have said the runoff does not belong to them.
A spokesman for Renfrewshire Council said: “We are sorry to hear of this incident.” As soon as the damage was reported to us we secured the area and reported the defect to the relevant authorities who made a repair and fitted a new cover .”
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