A mother who broke almost every bone in her body in a head-on car crash told how her five month old baby survived the collision – without a scratch.
Lisa-Marie Stoneley, 34, suffered life-threatening injuries in the horror smash, which happened as she travelled home with her family, including baby Faith.
Mother-of-two Lisa-Marie had two broken legs, fractured ribs, a cracked elbow, a fractured spine, a shattered pelvis and ripped cartilage in both knees.
She also suffered a dislocated and fractured ankle, a dislocated toe. All but one of her vertebrae were damaged or broken.
Lisa-Marie’s partner Louis Wood, 36, and son Ryan Roe, 15, broke their knuckles in the collision, while Ryan’s friend Jamie Steer, 16, had a severed main artery.
Jamie, whose artery was severed upwards, spent weeks in intensive care and has only recently returned to school.
But Faith, now nine months, escaped the whole impact of the smash, on the B3168 at Bay Hill, Somerset, as she was strapped in to her childseat on the back passenger’s side.
Lisa-Marie, who spent eight days in a coma and a total of 10 weeks in hospital after the crash four months ago, said it was a “miracle” her family had survived.
Health care assistant Lisa-Marie, from Yeovil, Somerset, said: “We would normally have had Faith on the driver’s side of the back seat but for some reason that night we put her own the passenger’s side.
“I will never understand why we did it but as a result she missed the whole impact.
“I didn’t see Faith for five-and-a-half weeks after the accident. I was feeding her myself so had only been away from her for about an hour – so to go from that was really hard.”
The family were on their way back from Ilminster Carnival on October 6 last year when they were involved in a head-on collision with another car.
Lisa-Marie had to be cut free from the car by firefighters and was then rushed to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Devon.
She was placed on a ventilator after she stopped breathing and doctors were initially unsure if she would be able to survive her catastrophic injuries.
Surgeons have performed extensive surgery to fit screws to Lisa-Marie’s pelvis, as well as metal bars in both of her legs.
Lisa-Marie is still bound to a wheelchair and is awaiting further surgery – but hopes to walk again one day.
She has been told that she will not be able to return to her former career, which involves a lot of manual work.
“It’s baby steps at the minute,” she said.
“It is frustrating as I was very active before. The way I look at it is I could be really angry and really upset but then the only person who would be affected is me.
“I would rather look at it that we got out of it alive. I’ve got two legs and two feet, and I’ve got the opportunity to walk again.
“I would rather focus on the positive and get on with my life instead of thinking ‘what if’. We can’t change anything, it’s already happened.”
