A former Newcastle General Hospital physio died after being struck by lightning on holiday, an inquest has found.
Daniella DiMambro, 48, was in Croatia with her daughter Emily DiMambro-Mosscrop, 18, and son, 15, when tragedy struck in August this year. She died weeks later, never having recovered from the heart attack she suffered, NottinghamLive reports.
Now, following an inquest, daughter Emily has told of the awful moment her mum was struck by lightning as they sheltered under a tree after a storm broke at the end of an "amazing" holiday. In an emotional tribute to her mum, a popular physio and pilates instructor, Emily recalled the life-changing day when the freak accident occurred.
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The trio - Emily, Daniella and her brother - had set out on a last-minute backpacking two-week trip to the country on August 8. Their first destination was the city of Dubrovnik, in southern Croatia fronting the Adriatic Sea, and they island-hopped before reaching Split, Croatia's second-largest city.
Emily, who has lived in Nottingham all her life, told Nottinghamshire Live she went with her mum for a two-hour walk around a national park before stopping to sunbathed on Kasjuni Beach. They threw down towels and Daniella had taken a book out, before a storm broke.
At this point, they headed to a rocky area to shelter under a tree. "Mum said, 'wait it out until the sun comes out again," said Emily.
They did not hear or see the lightning until it happened - there was a big flash and then a second - when Emily believes - but can't be 100% certain - she was hit too, as she blacked out and woke up. Only her hearing was affected, but her mum was "absolutely out of it", Emily said. "She just wasn't there.
"I thought, 'this really is not good, I definitely thought she had been struck by lightning. It made sense".
She tried to call emergency services, but they did not understand her English, so she rushed to a beach bar to find someone able to speak Croatian and summon an ambulance. An ambulance did arrived quickly - they were in the area for a sporting event - and 48-year-old Daniella was taken to hospital separately from Emily.
The teenager added: "I honestly thought she was dead at that point. Five minutes into the ambulance ride, I found out she was alive, which was a relief."
Daniella spent eight days in intensive care in Croatia's KBC Split hospital, whilst Emily stepped in to sorted out her repatriation with the British Consulate in Croatia - who were calling her four times a day to check on her and her brother.
Emily secured her mum's flight home in just eight days and Daniella was deemed fit to fly, with Emily also sorting everything out with the insurance company which footed the bill for the flight and medical care home on an air ambulance flight, with her own private medical team from Germany.
But tragedy struck on August 20, two days before the family was due to fly back into Luton Airport and Emily had to arrange for her mum to have medical care in the UK. Her brother flew home separately.
However, Emily was able to arrange for the air ambulance team to land at East Midlands airport and for Daniella to be taken to City Hospital, Nottingham. There, she spent four weeks in intensive care. Doctors in Croatia had assured Emily her mum was going to make a full recovery - but once back in the UK and after more tests - the heartbreaking news was broken to the family.
"She was never going to be able to move again", said Emily. "She was the most incredible individual; full of life and energy. She was great." Despite her tender years, Emily knew that living the way her mum would have to in the future would be unfair to her.
Daniella had suffered a heart attack at the scene and her brain had been starved of oxygen. An inquest in Nottingham on Wednesday (October 19) heard Daniella's family sought an expert opinion from a specialist in London - the specialist agreeing the prognosis was "poor" - and she was unlikely to make significant neurological improvement.
After discussion with her family, including her brother and her parents, this led to a decision that 'neurological pathway' care, as advised by treating clinicians, was the most acceptable way forward. Emily did not get to speak to her mum again - her eyes were open - but she could not move her face.
"It looked like she was going to cry," remembered Emily. "She remained in ICU. I thought this is 'just not fair to her'. She would absolutely hate that. If she was in her head, if she knew what was going on. She would hate that.
"The doctors said, 'take the life support off and breathing tube out'. Because she was really fit, she continued to breathe on her own. At that point they took the breathing tube out and put her on hydration".
Daniella was on end of life care, and Emily was with her mum for a week-and-a-half before she died. "It lasted eight days," said Emily, "then she left us". Daniella, of Mansfield Road, Nottingham, went to Fairfield High School for Girls, in Droylsden, Greater Manchester.
She studied at Hyde Sixth Form College (school year 1993) gaining A-Levels in Physics, Chemistry and Biology, before her BSc in Physiotherapy at Sheffield Hallam University, then her Masters at UCL.
She worked across the country - at the now defunct Newcastle General Hospital, Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Manchester Royal Infirmary. She was a former sports physiotherapist at West Yorkshire sports injury clinic, Bradford, and Senior Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist at Queensbury Physiotherapy Practice, Bradford.
She spent a year working for GPs, private physiotherapy practices and Hope Hospital, in her home city of Manchester, – covering A&E, specialist leg rehabilitation and osteoarthritis services. She also covered Manchester Dental Hospital and an increasing number of referrals for jaw treatments gave her the topic that led to her award-winning Master's dissertation.
She moved to Nottingham in 2002, providing full-time in-house physiotherapy services for Toyota in Derby, then a self-employed subcontractor at a private clinic in West Bridgford, before she became an on-site occupational health outpatient contractor for Bombardier Transportation UK. She set up her practice on January 15, 2008.
Emily said: "She was really caring to everyone. Everyone loves her. She lived and breathed her business. Without her people wouldn't come, because she wasn't just any physio, she was amazing, and she just helped everyone and she would get presents from her clients to say 'thank you'.
"She was a happy-go-lucky person, always going with the flow. I couldn't wish for a better person to raise me. She was my best friend. I told her everything".
Senior coroner for Nottinghamshire, Mairin Casey, recorded a narrative conclusion at the inquest. "Her death was due to a lightning strike, leading to cardiac arrest and hypoxic ischemic brain injury," the coroner said.
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