Dad-of-three dies in freak DIY accident while building pool for kids to play in during lockdown

A DAD-of-three died in a freak DIY accident while building a pool for his kids to to play in during lockdown.

Kirk Jensen, 45, banged his head in a fall while putting the finishing touches to the pool house in the back garden.

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His wife Leanne, 40, found him lying on the ground and initially thinking he was joking.

But he lost his battle for life six days later on April 19, leaving Leanne a teacher, and their three children, Keira, 18, Amelia, 14, and Bronnum, 6, devastated.

Leanne who wed her handyman husband 24 years ago, said he was a talented builder, who had made forts, and gardens for his family at their home in Caistor, Lincolnshire,

“He was always building things for the kids,” she said.

“He had been working on a pool house for the youngest recently, so he would be able to go for a swim in all weathers.

“He had plenty of time on his hands due to the lockdown. But it couldn’t be a simple job, not for Kirk.

“It had to have gadgets and things in it. So he made a waterfall for it, and called me out to the garden to show me it.”

Ben Lack

Ben Lack

But after that she heard her son saying “daddy, daddy, what’s wrong?” and ran over to him.

“He said ‘I am just getting over it’, so I asked him if he had fallen and he said he must have,” recalled Leanne.

“I think he had gone lightheaded when he stood up and closed the door, because he fell backwards and banged his head on the concrete.”

Leanne knew that his situation was serious after seeing him get steadily worse and be violently sick.

By the time an ambulance arrived, he lost his movement on one side and his vision was going.

“That was when he started panicking and started telling me how much he loved me and that I was amazing,” she continued.

He was rushed to Hull Royal Infirmary and he had brain surgery less than three hours later to remove a blood clot from his brain after the Easter Monday accident.

Kirk seemed to be getting better but then needed another operation because his brain started swelling and doctors finally broke the news there was no hope.

“Thankfully they let us all come in and say goodbye,” she said.

“They gave each of us a knitted blue heart that he had been holding onto, so we could carry him with us for the rest of our lives.”