Mother left for dead in hit-run
FIRST ON 7: A Sydney mother is at risk of losing a foot after she was run down and left for dead, while on a morning walk.
She says she can't face her family, but she spoke exclusively to 7News in an appeal for help to find those who inflicted her horrific injuries.
Not even the world's best microsurgeons can give this terrified mother-of-two any assurances that she'll walk normally again.
"I still can't actually accept that this is what actually happened because there's still a high chance that they're going to have to amputate my foot," Nina said.
Nina was setting out on a sunrise stroll with her boyfriend at La Perouse, when a carload of young men drove straight at the couple.
"You could see their eyes through the windscreen as they are coming, because it's almost in slow motion, and I'm like 'no, this is a dream.'
In a flash, it became a nightmare, and Nina lost consciouness, but came to at St Vincent's Hospital.
"I did have a glimpse of waking up at some stage and seeing I'm in hospital and ambulance or doctors on top of me and a lot of people fussing over me," Nina said.
Then, as if she hadn't suffered enough trauma doctors asked if she could consent to them cutting off her ankle.
"I just couldn't believe it until then, I still can't," she said.
Nina now wants justice, and help from anyone who knows the men who abandoned the car and ran off.
"I could still lose my foot, I could have lost my life," she said.
Superintendent Gavin Dengate says Nina still has a lot to go through.
"We're appealing for everyone to back her up, to be with her in this incident," Mr Dengate said.
Nina hasn't been able to face her family; her elderly father has a weak heart, and she wants to shield her kids from the horror of it all.
"I don't want them to see me like this, they are only 13 and 14 and if they see me it'd be too distressing," she said.
Nina says she was just a split second away from dying, but having survived she wants the world to know exactly what she thinks of those who left her for dead.
"Cowards. That's what they are, cowards. Like little babies, got out of the car and couldn't scurry off fast enough."
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crimestoppers on 1800333000.
