The last thing Usebia Musuqawa remembers about the accident was that she was sleeping and woke up when the van was swaying, and her first reaction was to jump to the seat behind her to save a pregnant colleague.

This was the last vivid memory she could recall before the van the she, Anaseini Curuivalu – who was eight months pregnant – and Rosa Tunabuna were travelling in to return to the Coqeloa nursing station veered off the Coqeloa stretch.

The three Then India Sanmarga Ikya (TISI) Sangam Nursing School final year students were based at the Coqeloa nursing station for their rural attachment.

Ms Musuqawa, who was five months pregnant, was seriously injured in the accident and had to undergo surgery. She was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit at the Labasa hospital for one week and five days, but is now recovering in the women’s surgical ward.

“On Sunday before the accident we left for Coqeloa and started our attachment on Monday then we came back on Tuesday to do our presentations at Roqomate House,” she said.

“TISI Sangam provided the transport and a house next to the nursing station. After the presentations we walked back to school because the transport had to pick us from there and take us back to Coqeloa. When we boarded we all sat in and I fell asleep.

“I woke up when the vehicle was swaying from side to side so I jumped to the second seat behind me where Ana was seating to protect her because she was pregnant as well.

“I was thrown out and landed on a puddle of mud and I couldn’t breathe so I pushed myself as hard as I can because I wanted to breathe again.”

Ms Musuqawa lost her baby while Ms Curuivalu, who was eight months pregnant, had her baby delivered safely by emergency Caesarean Section.

“I miss my baby a lot but I am looking forward to going back to school and completing my studies,” Ms Musuqawa said.

“The doctors had put a metal brace to fix my broken pelvic bone after eight weeks they will remove it but it will take almost two months for me to walk again that’s what the doctor told me.

“The doctor also told me in future if I am pregnant I won’t be able to have a normal delivery because of my pelvic injury so the best optic for me is C-section.”

Her mother Kini Musuqawa was overjoyed and thanked God that her daughter is alive and well after the accident.

Meanwhile Ms Tunabuna was discharged from the hospital on Thursday afternoon after her father Luke Tunabuna refused for doctors to operate on her broken left leg.

Mr Tunabuna said: “I don’t want the doctors to operate on her because it because if they perform a surgery on her again it would damage her body.

“I have an experienced massager who is here to massage her at home because I want nature to do its healing process.”

Baby Leenette Vavalagi Curuivalu will be able to lie next to her mother, Ms Curuivalu, today when she is discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

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