A 52-year-old school assistant – on her way to work to provide emergency staffing cover – ended up spending five days in hospital after falling on sheet ice believed to have formed from a water leak.

The incident occurred just a few minutes walk from Halfway House Primary School, close to traffic lights in Queenborough Road.

Donna King suffered multiple fractures to her left arm and has been ordered by doctors not to attend work for at least four more weeks.

She said: “Even in the summer there always seems to be a large puddle of water at that spot but on January 10 when I fell it was a sheet of frozen ice.

“If this problem is not fixed, I really fear for elderly people after my experience. I fell heavily at 7.31am – that’s the exact time because the hands on my watch stopped on impact.”

Mrs King, of Sunnyside Avenue, Minster, was on her way to help other assistants prepare an early breakfast for pupils.

She intends to report the problem to Kent Highways Agency.

She added: “I should have been off that morning when they called me at home to provide cover due to staff absence.

“I ended up struggling to the school – how I got there I don’t know, – with the team helping me out instead, tending to my injuries.

“I was in immense pain. On a scale of one to 10, I would say I was at 10.”

Her husband Andrew collected her to be examined at the minor injuries unit at Sheppey Community Hospital where they established she had suffered four fractures in her upper left arm.

She was then taken to Medway Maritime Hospital where she underwent an operation to plate and pin the damage.

A spokesman for Kent Highways Agency said: “We are sorry to hear about Mrs King’s injuries. We always look into reported problems and if she would care to contact us and give us details we will look into it.”

Speaking from her home with her arm in a sling, Mrs King added: “Some of my more humorous friends have been asking me if I was auditioning for Dancing on Ice!

“But it’s no joke being a one-armed bandit. All the things you take for granted I now can’t do like putting up the washing, driving, even cutting up my dinner. You feel like a child.

“I can’t praise the staff at the Medway hospital highly enough.

“I stayed in Pembroke Ward and received first class attention. The staff were lovely.”