Daycare worker Geraldine Watego is being hailed a hero after she took the weight of a 150 kilogram commercial fridge to save two children from being crushed in North Queensland.
The 38-year-old mother of 6 told NITV that without her sprinting skills and mother's instinct, the pair, aged 5 and 7, would not have survived the impact.
"I was cleaning an area of the room when I heard screaming and as I turned I saw the fridge falling," she told NITV.
"So I ran and put myself under it to save it from falling on them. They would have been instantly killed because of their size."
The large fridge was installed last week for Bowen Out Of School Hours Care centre's usual vacation care period, when up to 30 kids need to store their lunchboxes.
The siblings were the last two in the centre at the time, their mother in the foyer, when both of them went to take their lunchboxes out of the fridge.
"Their mother also heard the screams and when she saw what had almost happened, like me she was also beside herself."
After taking the full weight of the fridge, Watego managed to get herself into an upright position with the help of the children's mother.
However, the incident has left her in pain both physical and mental.
"My first instinct was to save them. I came home traumatised, crying. If I didn't move that fast, those poor kids would have been killed.
"I am in a lot of pain but I'm just glad that both of those children and myself are doing okay."
Watego was present earlier in the week when the fridge had been delivered. She asked the installation technician before he left the site if the fridge had been safety-checked, especially as it was in a daycare centre.
"It's not a fridge we normally use outside of vacation care but the kids had stored their two lunchboxes in there without my knowing."
An informal inspection found that the support legs were not in the right position, the brakes weren't engaged and the fridge was not bolted to the wall.
Now receiving treatment for sciatic nerve damage, Watego has taken time off work to attend to her injuries.
