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Jun 06, 2023

‘I see the funny side now’

‘I mean, you go visit your mum’s grave and you nearly end up in one yourself!’

‘I mean, you go visit your mum's grave and you nearly end up in one yourself!’

Christian pictured at his mum's grave this week

Christian Orr back at his mother's new headstone at Roselawn Cemetery in Belfast this week

Christian waiting for ambulance

Christian pictured at the time of the accident with paramedics at the scene

In one of the most bizarre injuries ever reported by this paper, a man revealed how he suffered a broken back when his mother's GRAVESTONE fell on top of him.

Christian Orr was leaving flowers at mum Vivienne's grave at Belfast's Roselawn Cemetery when the marble headstone collapsed, trapping him underneath.

He spoke this week of his ongoing severe pain from the injury, which happened several years ago.

A remarkable video of the aftermath of the almost fatal incident was shared – and Christian admits he can now see the funny side.

Man describes difficulty after his mother's gravestone falls on him

"At the time it was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced," the 51-year-old told the Sunday World.

"I heard this awful snap as the headstone fell on top of me and I couldn't move. I’m still in a lot of pain today and it took me a long time to be able to get back to work full-time.

"I’m lucky to be alive because it nearly fell on my chest and doctors said if it had it would have crushed me to death."

The taxi driver from east Belfast says he’d been paying his respects to his mum, as he frequently did, when things took a bizarre turn.

Christian waiting for ambulance

"I was there tidying up my mum's grave and leaving some flowers when I noticed the headstone had come loose and wasn't sitting properly," he says.

"I tried to fix it but it started to fall and was about to crush the headstone behind it which would have been terrible, so I just instinctively grabbed it.

"But it was so heavy, and I couldn't steady it. The headstone came down on top of me causing my back to break. Honestly, the sound of the snapping will haunt me for ever and the pain was unreal.

"I was just lying there, completely helpless, my head was spinning and I was completely disorientated.

"The doctors told me later I had broken the vertebrae in my back but it could have been much worse. I managed to get my hands down under the headstone otherwise it was going to fall on top of my chest.

"The doctors said if it had fallen on my chest it would have killed me. They also said it was lucky it was grass and not concrete I fell back onto as it would have crushed my whole spine."

Christian was eventually rescued by a kind Samaritan who lifted the headstone off his legs and called for help.

Christian pictured at the time of the accident with paramedics at the scene

"This man called John Cherry, a Christian man, saw me lying there in a state and managed to lift the headstone off me," he says. "That's one of the good things to come out of all this – I now have a new friend. John and I have stayed in contact, and I can't thank him enough for saving me.

"I was lying there for almost three hours waiting on an ambulance. The paramedics were brilliant, and they got me to hospital where I was pumped full of morphine to ease the pain.

"And you’ll not believe this but the day after my back broke, my father passed away. Obviously I couldn't even carry his coffin or anything at the funeral."

Christian stayed in hospital for about a week and then spent months recuperating at home.

A video of the aftermath shows Christian lying by his mum's grave, unable to move, and clearly in excruciating pain.

"They got someone from the taxi depot to come up and that's him you can hear taking the piss out of me," says Christian. "It wasn't funny at the time but I know he was just trying to keep me calm as I was very distressed."

In the video Christian is seen asking and receiving gas and air to ease the pain while discussing his weight and what medication he's on with the paramedics.

He says: "The paramedics thought it was a wind-up when they first arrived. They said they’d never had to deal with someone being crushed by a gravestone before and were dubious when they were given a grave number to turn up at to find their patient. They were great though and so professional.

"Looking back at the video now I can see the funny side, what else can I do? I mean, you go up to visit your mum's grave and you nearly end up in one yourself!

"All you can do is laugh. I was very close to my mum and my sister is buried there too."

Christian Orr back at his mother's new headstone at Roselawn Cemetery in Belfast this week

He added: "I’ve no doubt they’d have been looking down at me lying there beside them saying, ‘This could only happen to you Christian’."

Christian has resumed his work as a taxi driver but says at the beginning it was hard.

"I could only stay seated in the taxi for 10 minutes before I’d have to get out because of the pain in my back," he explains.

"I suffer from psoriatic arthritis too but I’m on mad medication which has done wonders for that. Though my vertebrae was broken there wasn't any operation that could help.

"I just had to rest it and then start doing exercises to get myself up on my feet."

Christian admits he's no stranger to a freak accident.

"I’ve broken bones before in bizarre ways. Once I was celebrating my 40th birthday and I’d been drinking all day and broke my ankle in the most horrific way.

"I’d walked into a kebab house at the end of the night and it had been raining.

"I did a 360 spin but my foot got stuck in the doormat and it stayed where it was.

"Apparently my ankle was basically hanging by a piece of skin. Luckily I fell and banged my head and passed out but I needed three surgeries to fix it."