Woman who had feet on car dashboard before crash given 50/50 chance of survival
Warning: This article contains graphic images which some readers may find distressing.
A woman had her feet on the dashboard when her car crashed and has opened up about doctors having to 'put her face back together'.
On December 16, 2006, Gráinne Kealy was driving from Galway to Laois in Ireland with her boyfriend when the Jeep skidded on a patch of ice.
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The then-22-year-old told LADbible the accident wasn't actually that 'terrible' but the vehicle did crash into a wall.
Alas, while her partner walked away with a broken nose, Kealy's injuries were far more severe.
She continued: "I probably would have walked away from it with very little injuries had I not had my feet on the dashboard.
"So, because my feet were on the dashboard, they were literally resting on top of the airbag so when the airbag opened up - and an airbag opens up quite fast, it's like about 120 miles an hour, it has to, to save you.
"It pushed my knees into my face and broke every bone in my face. I had a CSF leak so spinal fluid was leaking out through my nose, [I] lost teeth, had brain seizures after it."
John Hopkins Medicine explains: "CSF is Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a clear liquid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It provides a cushion for delicate brain and spinal tissue.
"Reduced cerebrospinal fluid, as in the case of a leak, requires immediate care by a trained expert."
Kealy's parents were told by doctors they 'couldn't even' give Kealy a '50-50 chance'.
Kealy then underwent surgery which was a staggering '10-and-a-half hours long'.
"They pretty much put my face back together," she said. "I like to say it was a little bit like Humpty Dumpty."
However, five months later, Kealy's forehead bone or 'bone flap as they like to call it' developed an infection.
Kealy didn't quite understand what this meant at the time, noting when her neurosurgeon recommended head scarves she questioned why, saying 'that's like what older women would wear'.
Kealy remembers questioning: "How bad is this going to be? Like a headscarf, right?"
"I woke up and I was still very swollen, so the effect - I didn't notice it straight away," she says. "I don't think I was fully prepared."
Kealy soon discovered her forehead was 'just sunk in' with no 'bone there to hold the skin'.
Kealy says she's 'still coping' with what happened to her, noting as a young woman it 'obviously did affect' her and left her not wanting to leave the house, not wanting people to look at her and not even wanting to look at herself.
She continued: "I had no forehead for two years, even to say that, to think I lived through that is just crazy to me. I don't know how I did it."
Now, Kealy has a 'beautiful Italian ceramic forehead' - she notes it's 'not normal ceramic' and was made specially for her through 'a lot of 3D CAT scans'.
She said she still has 'bad days' and 'neck and shoulder pain because of years of putting [her] head down' so people can't look at her face, but resolves she 'had to speak up'.
Kealy resolved: "I see it [feet on car dashboard] so often and it scares me and to think someone might have to go through anything like what I've had to go through. I have shivers just thinking about it.
"It's obvious, but people still do it. And it's so dangerous. Even if the car's parked, it's just not worth the risk. I promise you."
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 to reach a 24-hour crisis center or you can webchat at 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
Poppy Bilderbeck