‘Lucky to be alive’: How Matthew Coscia survived Klemzig bouncing castle accident

The Hillcrest jumping castle tragedy appeared like a terrible dream to many but to one Adelaide mother it seemed like an awful case of history repeating.

When a swarm of people rushed onto the grounds of T.K Shutter Reserve at a Christmas party in 1987, Annette Coscia just thought the big man in red arrived earlier than expected.

She was in the clubrooms dishing out barbecue food when an inflatable bouncing castle broke free of mooring ropes during a gust of wind in Klemzig.

Little did she know that partygoers were running towards her five-year-old son, Matthew, who fell about 4m from the castle.

The castle went 30m into the air and moved about 50m to the side in a scene similar to what happened at the tragic accident in Tasmania earlier this month that killed six children.

“Somebody burst out and said ‘Annette, Annette, it’s Matthew’ and he was there in the middle of these people bleeding profusely and I said straight away ‘he is turning blue, he’s not breathing’,” Mrs Coscia, 68, of Enfield, said.

Matthew Coscia with his mum Annette Coscia at T.K. Shutter Reserve. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

“Blood was pouring out of his ears, his nose and his mouth so a friend got down and tried to clear his airways thinking his tongue had gone back but big blood clots were coming out. It’s confronting, very frightening, seeing your child laying there.”

Matthew, now 39, was severely injured with a cracked skull, nerve damage, a facial palsy, bruising to his brain, and intense throat damage.

After arriving at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital he was put into intensive care on full life support and was kept in a coma for five days.

Mrs Coscia’s bad memories intensified upon learning six Hillcrest Primary School children in Tasmania were killed in a similar jumping castle accident this month.

A gust of wind lifted a jumping castle into the air while children were playing inside – and Mrs Coscia said it felt like “history was repeating itself”.

“He’d only just finished his first year at Hillcrest Primary School (in Adelaide) when he had the accident and this year’s accident in Tasmania was also at a Hillcrest Primary School,” Mrs Coscia, who lost her first son to cancer as a toddler, said.

An emotional young female police officer, who was a first responder, to a freak accident where a gust of wind swept away a jumping castle at Hillcrest Primary School in Tasmania. Picture: Jason Edwards

Being so young at the time, Mr Coscia cannot recall the accident nor the time he spent in hospital.

Following the accident, he had to learn how to walk and talk again, and suffered “flaming migraines”. Luckily, he lives with no severe injuries.

He says the mooring on the jumping castle back in 1987 was old and did not support the castle effectively.

“Now that I have got kids of my own, whenever there is a bouncing castle somewhere I will always check that it is anchored properly,” he said.

News of the horrific accident in Tasmania “hit him hard”. “I’ve got two young kids of similar ages to the children in Tasmania and it just a whole different perspective as a parent,” Mr Coscia, of Plympton Park, said. “I am very grateful I am alive.”

His mother agrees: “Everyone for many years said ‘poor boy, poor boy’ because he had the accident, but I would always say ‘no, no lucky boy’ because he is alive,

“We are so damn lucky, it’s not even funny.”