Roussos familyThe mother of the youngest victim of the Manchester arena bombing says she doesn’t want to be “referred to as a victim” and instead prefers “warrior”.
Saffie-Rose Roussos was eight years old when she was killed – along with 21 others – as a bomb was detonated at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
Lisa Roussos was critically injured, her leg so badly damaged by shrapnel surgeons had only hours to restore the bloody supply to stop it being amputated.
Speaking for the first time on Radio 5 Live with her consultant plastic surgeon, Professor Vivien Lees, she said that living without Saffie “is more of a struggle than any of my physical injuries”.
“I’m never going to be the way I was before all this but I’m doing great considering,” she said.
Lisa, originally from Leyland, Lancashire, but now living in Dorset, was the last person to be moved from the scene and was taken to Salford Royal Hospital before being airlifted to Wythenshawe Hospital.
“I immediately knew I was injured. I didn’t think about the seriousness of it, I wanted to look for my children and make sure they were ok,” Lisa said.
She added: “I remember thinking that because Ashley was a good few steps ahead of us, hopefully she’s got out, but Saffie had my hand, we were close together, and I thought if I’m this inured where I can’t move, then she’s got to be injured too.”
Professor Lees, who became her chief surgeon, said she had shrapnel “embedded all over her body”.
“At the beginning there was a major effort to deal with the key injuries,” she said which also included two broken legs and severe damage to her right hand.
Lisa was in a medical coma for eight days undergoing many operations to save her life.
When it was time to bring Lisa out of the coma, her husband Andrew said he was worried having to tell her that Saffie had died in the blast “was just going to destroy her”.
Roussos family“I was worried it was going to impact her recovery, because it’s the worst news you could possibly receive,” he said.
“Bringing someone round from an induced coma is not an easy process or a nice process.
“It takes hours for them to wean off the drugs. She was pulling the tubes out of her nose, she was kicking, she was punching, she was screaming and it was horrific to watch. But everyone was telling me this is normal.”
He said when he spoke to Professor Lees about his concerns she “turned round to me and she said ‘that’s good’ and I couldn’t believe the response, but it was the only way to know all the surgeries had been successful – the legs are working, the arms are working.”
Following Saffie’s death in the arena, lawyers representing the Roussos family commissioned experts to look into the circumstances of her death.
Saffie was the first person to be carried out of the foyer, but there was no ambulance outside, and one had to be flagged down.