A nightmare unfolded at a putt-putt course in California for a mother and her family.
PublishedAugust 12, 2025 12:45 PM EDT•UpdatedAugust 12, 2025 12:45 PM EDT
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Mini-golf is supposed to be an enjoyable experience – a break from life, if you will – but for a mother in Ventura, Calif. it turned into what has to be the worst day of her life.
Adela Magana and her family arrived at Golf N’ Stuff mini golf course and amusement park on August 6 to celebrate her son’s 13th birthday. She sat down on a bench to watch her kids play a hole, when all of a sudden, a palm tree came crashing down on top of her.
A nightmare unfolded at a Ventura, California mini golf course. (Getty Images Creative)
Her 22-year-old son, Junior, his father Amando, and two other players on the golf course rushed over to lift the roughly 40-foot tree off of her, but the damage was severe. According to the Ventura County Star, Adela lost her right arm after doctors at Ventura County Medical Center amputated it just below the shoulder the day after the freak incident.
“I was going to go look for the ball, and by that time, I heard a screeching sound — like a branch breaking,” said Junior told the outlet. “I thought nothing of it, but then I heard a big old thump, and people were running toward my mom.”
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Junior recalled the scene shortly after the tree had fallen, trying to stop his mom from bleeding out.
“After that, we went straight into stopping the bleeding,” Junior explained. “We got a belt, used it as a tourniquet, held it and had other people call 911.”
Adela, who is a mother of four and grandmother of one, will require additional surgeries and have to undergo rehabilitation to be able to use a prosthetic in the future.
It’s incredibly difficult to imagine the situation the Magana family went through, having at one second been playing putt-putt to celebrate a birthday, to suddenly being thrust into a nightmare that impacted everyone involved.
