A student involved in a head-on car crash who suffered horrific injuries including 28 broken bones, a ruptured liver, punctured lung and petrol burns has miraculously survived.
Grace Havard in critical condition
Grace Havard, a medical student was lucky to survive the collision with a BMW on Thorpe Bypass in Surrey in April last year.
According to Daily Mail Online, the accident split Miss Havard's liver in two and left her with bleeding kidneys, a distended gall bladder and half a bowel. As a result, the 21-year-old spent a month in an induced coma at a specialist trauma hospital St George's Hospital, south London.
Miraculously, she survived and after months of painstaking treatment - including learning to walk again - she is almost fully recovered.
She has since been dubbed 'Amazing Grace' by her friends, and is now preparing to run a marathon in aid of the hospital doctors who saved her.
According to Daily Mail Online, the accident split Miss Havard's liver in two and left her with bleeding kidneys, a distended gall bladder and half a bowel. As a result, the 21-year-old spent a month in an induced coma at a specialist trauma hospital St George's Hospital, south London.
Miraculously, she survived and after months of painstaking treatment - including learning to walk again - she is almost fully recovered.
She has since been dubbed 'Amazing Grace' by her friends, and is now preparing to run a marathon in aid of the hospital doctors who saved her.
She has battled back to health and taken up running. She plans to complete the London Marathon in April
Talking the ordeal, Miss Havard said she has no memory of the near fatal accident.
'I was driving back from my boyfriend Dan's house.The next thing I know it was a month later.' She said
Miss Havard was in hospital for five months and needed regular physiotherapy after she was discharged to her parents house in Chertsey, Surrey.
She has now documented her recovery on a sickness to fitness blog 'Marathon Journey.'
While she was in a coma, doctors carried out skin grafts. She had half of her bowel removed and lived with an ileostomy bag for five months.
'I was driving back from my boyfriend Dan's house.The next thing I know it was a month later.' She said
Miss Havard was in hospital for five months and needed regular physiotherapy after she was discharged to her parents house in Chertsey, Surrey.
She has now documented her recovery on a sickness to fitness blog 'Marathon Journey.'
While she was in a coma, doctors carried out skin grafts. She had half of her bowel removed and lived with an ileostomy bag for five months.
Havard on her hospital bed
Throughout her recovery she was supported by her mother Gloria, 52, father, Mark, 55, and boyfriend, Dan King, 25. The accident also meant she had to defer a year at Reading University, where she is studying linguistics.
She has already managed to build up her strength to complete two half marathons in preparation for the London Marathon next April, which she will run in aid of the hospital which she said saved her life.
Havard on her hospital bed
Amazingly, Miss Havard only took up running after the accident.
She said: 'I was not a keen racer before but after physiotherapy, which was really hard, I started to walk and then I started to run.
'I am proof that if you really want something, you can do it.'
Writing on her blog, she said: 'I haven't written for a while purely because I have been so busy.
'I definitely underestimated how much time and effort would be needed to complete my final year at uni, do a dissertation, fundraise and organise events, train and find time to relax...but do you know what? I love it!
'I love the feeling that I am bettering my life. I love that I am healthy. I love that I'm going to help others. I love that I am finishing what I never thought I would nor could (her degree). I love feeling alive.'
