Sir Alex Ferguson's former daughter-in-法律 tells of the horror 衝突，墜落 that almost killed her and her son

By Victoria Lambert
Updated: 18:09 BST, 20 September 2009

Sir Alex Ferguson's former daughter-in-法律 Nadine 直面するd having her 脚 amputated after a car 衝突，墜落 that left her son in a 昏睡. Here she tells of their incredible 回復.

When 伝説の football 経営者／支配人 Sir Alex Ferguson led his dainty six-year-old granddaughter Grace, dressed in a miniature Manchester 部隊d （土地などの）細長い一片, out on to the pitch to join the 祝賀s as his team won their 18th 首相 League 肩書を与える last May, few fans knew that her brother - football-mad Charlie, ten - was in hospital 戦う／戦いing for his life.

Sir Alex was 猛烈に trying to keep normal life going for Grace, who was still in shock from a car 事故 that had torn her family apart. Not only was Charlie in 集中的な care, but the children's mother Nadine was 本気で ill in a separate hospital.?

Road to 回復: Nadine Ferguson almost lost a 脚 - and her son - in a horrific 衝突，墜落

Nadine, the 31-year-old former wife of Sir Alex's son Darren, was hugely relieved that her in-法律s could help. 罠にかける in a hospital bed, her 脚 粉砕するd to pieces, she could only relive the terrifying moment another car - a red Ford Fiesta --長，率いるd straight and unavoidably at her small Vauxhall Corsa.

Even now, four months later, she can hardly 耐える to talk about it.

'When I の近くに my 注目する，もくろむs and think of tha t car coming に向かって us, I can't 対処する with it,' she says. 'I will never be able to 運動 負かす／撃墜する that 小道／航路 again.'

That Nadine - who was in a 雇う car as her own was 存在 serviced - can 熟視する／熟考する 運動ing at all is astonishing.

The 事故, 近づく Macclesfield in Cheshire, happened while the family were on the ten-minute school run. It nearly cost her a 脚 and almost （人命などを）奪う，主張するd the life of her son. Nadine's femur was broken in 35 places and doctors considered amputation. She also broke eight ribs.

Nadine's former father-in-法律, Sir Alex Ferguson

Charlie 苦しむd life-脅すing 内部の 傷害s. He broke his 支援する and was in a 昏睡 for three days and his scalp was 厳しいd nearly all the way 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. Grace was the only one who escaped from the 難破 with just bruising. The other driver has now been 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with 運動ing without 予定 care and attention.

In the moments after the 事故, Nadine, an 内部のs stylist working おもに for footballers, 恐れるd there would be an even more horrific 結果. 'As I （機の）カム to after the 衝撃, all I could see was white dust. I later 設立する out it was from my airbag but at the time I was 納得させるd the car was about to 爆発する.

'I knew the children were alive because, although I couldn't move the lower half of my 団体／死体, I could 新たな展開 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and see them - covered in 血 and 叫び声をあげるing in 苦痛.

'Charlie kept s aying he couldn't breathe and somehow I managed to reach 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and undo his seat belt. 'But I was still 叫び声をあげるing, "Get us out, get us out!" My father was in the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 service so I understood a bit about 事故s. I realised I would have to be 削減（する） out but I was terrified for the children in 事例／患者 the car burst into 炎上s.

'一方／合間, Grace went very 静かな while Charlie kept 説, "The idiot, the idiot" about the other driver.'

Fortunately, a young man stopped by the car, and then an A&E nurse on her way to work. They gently 解放する／自由なd the children while Nadine began to drift in and out of consciousness.

A 解雇する／砲火／射撃 乗組員 arrived to 削減（する） Nadine 解放する／自由な. 'That was awful - it seemed to last for ever. A young 消防士 stayed with me all the time, 持つ／拘留するing my 手渡す and 保護物，者ing me as the 機械／機構 割れ目d open the car. Glass and metal were 飛行機で行くing everywhere - it was incredibly loud, everyone was shouting and all I could think was whether my 脚 had come off. 血 was seeping up my thigh to my waist. Medics couldn't get a drip into my 手渡す. Yet in the middle of all this I was oddly 静める.'

After Nadine was finally 解放（する）d she was flown by 空気／公表する 救急車 to Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital. 'That was a blur,' she says. 'I kept asking for my children. I was fighting to get off my bed so I could get to them, which was, of course, impossible.'

By the time she was taken into theatre, it was evening. In a seven-hour 操作／手術, 外科医s 始める，決める her femur, pinning it together with screws, 棒s and plates. 血 had been 注ぐing from a 12in curving gash up and over her 膝 and the 負傷させる needed stitching.?

Strong 社債: The ordeal brought Nadine, Grace and Charlie closer than ever

When she woke, she was told she was lucky still to have her 脚 but that she might struggle to walk and would be in a 車椅子 for perhaps 18 months.

Her mother and father, ジーンズ and Les Metcalfe, had flown from Portugal, where they live, to support her. Her former husband Darren Ferguson arrived from Peterborough, where he manages 選手権 味方する Peterborough 部隊d, to be with the children, and Sir Alex and his wife Cathy dashed to Charlie's 病人の枕元 after Manchester 部隊d's 支持する／優勝者s League 衝突／不一致 with 兵器庫 in London.

But all Nadine could think of was the children. 'I kept begging them to take me to Charlie and Grace. My mother instinct was telling me they were in danger and needed me.' The staff 保証するd her the children were doing 井戸／弁護士席.

However, this wasn't 正確に／まさに true. While Grace was 発射する／解雇するd from Leighton Hospital to stay with Sir Alex and Cathy, Charlie remained in a serious 条件. He had 崩壊（する）d in A&E, later telling his shocked mother that his last memory was of seeing a 有望な light coming に向かって him.

He was airlifted to Alder Hey Children's Hospital outside Liverpool, where he lay in a 昏睡 for three days. His 内部の 組織／臓器s had been 鎮圧するd, ripping a 穴を開ける in his diaphragm.

回復するing 井戸／弁護士席: Nadine still needs a 車椅子 at times

His 支援する was broken and the 最高の，を越す of his 長，率いる had been almost 厳しいd.

外科医s operated on his abdomen on the night of the 事故. Then they laid him on a bed of ice to bring 負かす／撃墜する his 核心 気温 before they could consider working on his 支援する. 'They also needed to get special titanium 棒s flown in to 行為／法令／行動する as scaffolding for the bone to knit around, as those 利用できる in the UK were too large,' says Nadine. 'And after they had operated to 直す／買収する，八百長をする his spine, a plastic 外科医 修理d the 最高の，を越す of his 長，率いる.'

Charlie spent a week in 集中的な care and then a week in the high-dependency 部隊. Nadine's mother rarely left his 味方する. At Wythenshawe, Nadine, who was too 負傷させるd to move, was becoming frantic.

'Grace took to climbing into bed with me for a cuddle, but I felt desperate 存在 apart from Charlie when he needed me,' she says. The pair longed to talk by phone but the sheer emotion of speaking 苦しめるd both so much that doctors 恐れるd it was slowing their 回復.

Nadine relied on family and friends to update her on her son's 進歩. Her brother flew over from Australia. One friend in particular, Keely, wife of former Everton and England footballer Earl Barrett, was 'my 激しく揺する - she （機の）カム whenever I needed for however long'.

In Leighton, Charlie was receiving special 訪問者s 含むing Wayne Rooney and others from the Manchester 部隊d team, all willing him 支援する to health. Medically, it had become a waiting game for both Nadine and Charlie.

'Doctors didn't know how 井戸／弁護士席 we would 傷をいやす／和解させる, or when,' says Nadine. 'It reached a point when I called Keely and begged her to come over. She 設立する me with the curtains drawn, curl ed into a ball, 辞退するing 医薬, until they let me see my son.

'She spent a day with me talking and as I pulled myself together a nurse agreed to talk to the doctors at both hospitals and they concurred --as long as I had support to go home to. Luckily, Mum and Dad agreed to move in until I was 動きやすい.'

Finally, mother and child were 再会させるd in a hospital visit from Nadine to Charlie before he was 発射する／解雇するd. 'We both cried and cried, and so did the nurses. We had about three hours together and 結局 I 一打／打撃d his 長，率いる until he fell asleep. It felt amazing.'?

関心: Darren and Sir Alex visit the hospital

支援する at Nadine's home, 回復 was difficult and brought new 強調する／ストレスs.

'I hated the fact that as I still couldn't walk, when Charlie 叫び声をあげるd in 苦痛 in the night, I couldn't go to him - my mum had to. He 苦しむd terrible cramps in his 脚s as he had been lying still for so long. And I was still receiving daily 注射s of 血-thinning 麻薬s to 妨げる clots as I just couldn't move. 'It was awful, too, to see his stomach a 集まり of stitches and a scar more than a foot long 負かす／撃墜する his spine.'

Physiotherapy three times a week, いつかs in water (hydrotherapy), and daily complementary therapies 含むing acupuncture and cupping (where heated cups are placed on the 肌 to encourage 血 flow and 緩和する 強調する／ストレス, aches and p ains) from Dr Su, a naturopath who 作品 with the Manchester 部隊d team, were beginning to help.

After two weeks at home, Nadine was moving around on crutches, although for longer 旅行s she needed a 車椅子, her 膝 stubbornly 辞退するing to bend. Life was slowly returning to normal.

'The first time I saw Charlie playing football in the garden I was furious - he had been told 厳密に no 接触する sports for safety,' she says.

'But then he 急ぐd in to tell me he'd kicked a ball straight - something he had been unable to do as his brain didn't seem to be communicating with his 脚s after the 事故 - and I wept with joy. I thought, he's on his way at last.'

For Nadine, the turning point （機の）カム in July when the family travelled to her parents' home in Portugal and she 設立する she could walk up the stairs. Her physio, Annette Turner, had 約束d that the combination of seawater, 日光 and walking on sand could help her 回復.

'It was a 広大な／多数の／重要な excuse for a holiday', she laughs.

When they returned to England, there was one more 障害物: 運動ing. 'My dad 手配中の，お尋ね者 me 支援する in a car at the first chance. I was terrified but I knew he was 権利. As a 選び出す／独身 mum, I 簡単に have to be 独立した・無所属. So he insured me for his Jeep and we drove slowly around the farm next to where I live until I 伸び（る）d the 信用／信任 to go alone.

'I still hate 存在 in a car, but it is a necessity. And I find 存在 a 乗客, or 許すing the children to be driven by anyone else, even worse. I need to feel in 支配（する）／統制する.'

Charlie is still under the care of Alder Hey and may need more 操作／手術s. But he is 支援する at school and looking 今後 to playing football again for his school and his club. Nadine may need その上の 操作／手術s on her 脚 and still needs a 車椅子 if she is out for any length of time.

She knows she will really feel life is 支援する on 跡をつける when she can put on her high heels - her Louboutins, her Yves St Laurent o r her favourite pairs from Topshop Boutique.

And the 事故 has changed her 視野 on life. 'We live for each day now. We don't let things bother us the way we did and we never put things off,' she says.

She 認めるs, too, how lucky she has been. 'As a 選び出す／独身 parent, you need a strong 網状組織 of support --and I 設立する that 地雷 was very special. We have experienced so much 親切 and help from everyone.'

Her family have always been の近くに but now they have a new 社債. 'We can't 耐える to be apart. When the children come home from school, we shut the door hunker 負かす／撃墜する. Then we feel 安全な and happy.'

And, at night, when Charlie asks: 'Why did it happen to us?', Nadine looks him in the 注目する，もくろむ and says: 'Because we are strong enough to を取り引きする it.' And they have been.