Mom recovering after shielding baby during hailstorm

AUSTRALIA (CNN) — A 23-year-old Australian woman is in recovery after getting horrific bruises on her body while shielding her infant daughter from hailstones. On Thursday, hail ripped through her car, hitting her body.

“I’ve learnt my lesson today, never drive in a hail storm.” Fiona Simpson wrote on Facebook.

Simpson, her 4-month old daughter and 78-year-old grandmother were caught in their car when the hailstorm hit near Kingaroy — located north of Brisbane in southern Queensland.

When heavy rain began to fall, Simpson pulled her car over to the side of the road.

“I wasn’t driving very fast because I couldn’t see very well,” Simpson told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

“I couldn’t see in front of me, I couldn’t even see the line on the road.”

What happened next spooked Simpson to her core. She heard a loud bang.

“All this rain starts coming in, and the back window was just open … it’s gone,” she told the ABC.

Simpson jumped into the back seat of the car to protect her daughter Clara. On Facebook, Simpson described covering her baby and suffering bruises on her back, arms, and head.

After a front window was smashed, Simpson moved to help her grandmother. Both women were pelted by the hail.

When the storm passed, Simpson drove her damaged car to a nearby home, where the residents called an ambulance. Simpson’s grandmother spent the night in the hospital after she suffered cuts to her left arm while her right arm was left “completely black” from bruising.

Clara had minor bruises and scratches.

Simpson posted Friday on Facebook that she and Clara were “safe at home,” while her grandmother was recovering in the hospital and would be home soon.

“Thank you all for your concern,” Simpson wrote, adding that she had received hundreds of messages, friend requests, and telephone calls.