My name is Jenny (23), … and this is my story.
 
I don’t really remember anything during the day of my accident, only what I’ve been told by friends and family. I know I’d dropped my boyfriend off at his house in North Yorkshire, agreeing to phone him when I got in and was traveling home late at night.
 
Only minutes from my house I was to be involved in an accident that would snatch everything in my world from me leave me fighting for my very life. I have since learned that I was hit by a drunk driver who was three times over the limit and traveling around 90 miles an hour. His car skidded on some gravel at the side of the road and ended up sliding sidewards onto my side of the road. I have seen the photos of the accident and agree with the police that I should never have survived that collision, but that night someone must have been looking down on me.
 
Meanwhile my boyfriend Paul was beginning to wonder why I hadn’t phoned yet. He began calling my house and mobile and after some time decided that something wasn’t right. Getting into his car he drove the 45 minute journey to my house. Passing the road where the accident happened he began to feel nagging doubts. On arriving at my house and finding it dark and empty without a car on the driveway he rushed back to the closed road and attracted the attention of the police officers. He was told that I had been taken to the local hospital and dashed to my bedside.
 
It turned out that I had quite a collection of injuries… I hit my head, broke my clavical, my right arm, both my legs, and three to six ribs. My liver was damaged and my spleen had to be removed, the broken ribs had punctured one of my lungs. My left foot was both broken and dislocated. In total I was in hospital for 8 weeks and during that time had an Ilizarov frame fitted.
 
My left leg was shattered around the knee, luckily my knee cap had survived intact. The frame was going to hold my bones in place whilst they healed. Unfortunately the broken leg and foot meant that I spent around three months either lying in a bed or in a wheelchair. By the time my other breaks had healed enough for me to use crutches and stand up the muscle on my legs had wasted.
 
My frame is runs over my knee , my leg was fixed in place as it was essential that my bones began to heal before I started bending my knee again. After four months I was allowed to have my frame hinged so I could begin getting some bend back. The scar tissue on my knee along with muscle wastage and muscle damage sustained at the time of the accident meant that my knee hardly bent at all.
 
At this point I have worn my frame for five months, my specialist is very pleased with my progress and has just removed the hinges all together from my frame meaning I can get much more bend and my muscles can start to support me. However, taking a step forwards with my recovery always comes at the expense of my physic. My muscles are now having to work at supporting my knee meaning that they are very stiff and on occasions painful, this makes walking and movement hard.
 
On the whole I feel I have been very lucky with my frame, I have only had minor infections twice and the pain I suffer on the whole is very minimal. I am just fortunate that my leg could be saved and that I am going to be able to walk again. I shall never regain the full use of my knee and it is impossible at this stage to guess how much bend I will end up with, but it feels like a small price to pay in exchange for my life.
 
I hope this has helped any who may find themselves in a similar situation.
 


Picture to follow soon...