BRIDGEWATER, S.D. – A Bridgewater mother is sharing her story after she was involved in a freak lawn mowing accident.
Mowing the lawn is a normal summer chore that Andy Jensen never thought much about until two weeks ago. His wife, Kendra, went out onto the deck to clean up some pool toys. She says she was outside for less than a minute when something shot out of the lawnmower and sliced her neck and shoulder.
Kendra said, “I just went into shock and just started waving my husband down and he kind of looked confused and I was like ‘I’m hurt, I’m really hurt. Something hit me and it hurt.’”
The Jensens don’t know what the object was that hit her. But luckily, her husband is a combat veteran and police officer and knew what to do.
“He ran to his car and grabbed his trauma bag and started stuffing my wound with gauze and wrapping it with a pressure dressing,” Kendra explained.
Andy Jensen, Kendra’s husband, said, “My very first thought was that my wife is going to bleed out in front of me and I was just hoping that I could make it stop long enough to get her to the hospital.”
The Jensens live about 45 minutes away from the nearest trauma hospital and Kendra was worried she wouldn’t make it there alive. The whole ambulance ride there she was thinking about her two boys.
“I just kept thinking thank God my kids were not outside and thank God it wasn’t one of them,” Kendra said.
She ended up making it to the hospital and was able to get treated.
“I’m just really grateful and I’m just glad she’s okay and that it’s not as bad as it looked,” Andy said.
It’s made her and her family more cautious around lawnmowers. “We’re going to have a new rule at our house that no one’s outside when dad’s mowing,” they said.
It was a scary experience that Kendra’s still healing from. Her focus now is to spread awareness. “He wasn’t close like I wasn’t standing nearby I was over 40 feet away so I was honestly shocked that something had hit me,” she said.
She wants people to know that accidents can happen anytime. “I’m living proof that there is no distance that is a safe distance you should be inside when someone is mowing and away from windows and that’s all there is to it.”
Kendra hopes by sharing her story it will prevent this from happening to anyone else.
The Jensens say they are just glad that Andy had trauma experience and was able to help. Andy recommends that others get some type of training especially if you live out in a rural area farther away from hospitals.
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