Woman who lost forehead in horrific crash issues stark warning
A woman has shared pictures of horrific injuries after losing her forehead in a car crash, and shamed celebrities who post images to social media with their feet on the dashboard.
Grainne Kealy was 22 years old when she broke every bone in her face and was left “unrecognisable” after riding in the passenger seat of her boyfriend’s jeep that crashed.
On December 16, 2006, the pair were driving along a road in Laois, Ireland, when their jeep skidded on a patch of black ice and crashed into a wall.
An airbag inflated and pushed the passenger’s feet up, slamming her knees into her face with a force of about 320km/h, which caused catastrophic injuries, Ms Kealy wrote in a harrowing Facebook post.
She suffered a leak to the brain, minor brain injury, and lost two teeth. However her most visible injury was having her entire forehead removed before a ceramic one was implanted two years later.
She shared harrowing pictures of her injuries as a renewed warning for other passengers to the dangers of resting their feet on car dashboard.
“This breaks my heart to think of how many millions of people have seen these celebrities with their feet on the dashboard. I can only hope that people will eventually learn from my mistake,” she wrote on Facebook Monday.
Thanks to the implant, the shape of the now 33-year-old woman’s head has been restored, but photos of the aftermath of the crash paint a grim picture of the accident’s impact.
Dealing with Acquired Brain Injury
Reflecting on the accident in a 2017 Facebook post, Ms Kealy wrote: “My recovery has been very tough and because of the complications in May 2007 I am still recovering.”
She has since been diagnosed with Acquired Brain Injury and often loses words in the middle of a conversation, which she said can happen up to 20 times a day.
“I get headaches when too many people are talking around/to me, when someone tries to talk to me over music and I sometimes find it difficult to stay focused,” she added.
“It has been a long, long road. I have no memory of the accident, the three months leading up to it or the month following it.
“One of my first memories is looking in the mirror for the first time. I didn’t recognize the face looking back at me.
“Please listen to me and learn from my horrible experience,” she urged.
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