A mum-of-four has made a “miracle recovery” after she was speared in the FACE by a dual-carriageway barrier which smashed through her windscreen in a horror crash.
Katrina Taylor, 34, came within inches of having her head severed by a sharp piece of metal cable which crashed through her sports car after she ploughed into the central reservation.
The nursery manager had been driving at 50mph when she hit a patch of standing water and aquaplaned on the A14 in Northamptonshire on April 29 last year.
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The chunk of metal shattered Katrina’s face – knocking out several teeth and breaking her palate into two pieces.
Another cable broke her nose in several places, broke both cheekbones and damaged her left eye socket – causing her to lose sight in that eye.
Firefighters took two hours to cut the semi-conscious mum out of her convertible Porsche Boxster before she was rushed to Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry, West Mids.
She was put in an induced coma for three days before surgeons fitted titanium plates into her jaw and skull to repair some of the damage.
Doctors warned Katrina’s mum and sister there was a good chance she would be brain-damaged for life when they took her out of the coma.
But incredibly, the brave mum discharged herself from hospital after just ten days, and a year on from the crash she has made a remarkable recovery.
Divorced Katrina, who lives with her four young sons in Desborough, Northants., spoke of the moment she “waited to die.”
She said: “The only bits I don’t remember are the actual impact.
“I remember the car spinning out and I just let go of the wheel and said goodbye to the children in my head.
“There was no point in fighting it, I thought ‘see you later, I’m a goner’. I was waiting to die.
“The next thing I remember is the paramedic cutting my clothes off and someone holding my head.
“I was put in the ambulance but then they knocked me out because I was choking on my teeth.
“The firefighters said by rights I should have lost my head and one of the officers at the scene said he thought I was going to die. I’ve had a miracle escape.
“But I had to discharge myself from hospital after 10 days.
“I have four sons, Alfie, nine, Arthur, six, Arnold, three, and Albert, two, and even though I was still recovering I had to look after them.
“The doctors had told my mum and my sister to expect that I would be brain-damaged because of the impact.
“I had quite a large wound on my head and because there was front and back impact, they believed I would have brain damage.
“I have done my best to stay in touch with everyone who helped me, all of them have been truly brilliant.”
Facial surgeon Peter Stockton said the seriousness of Katrina’s injuries were at the ‘upper end’ of the spectrum he had seen.
Since then she has gone through three operations to slowly rebuild her face, including a procedure to remove all of her teeth and replace them with a full set of dentures.
She will require more surgery as the head trauma she sustained has also affected her hearing.
