A beautician whose spine was crushed after the car she was travelling in plunged from a 20-foot bridge says she’s determined to walk again.
Kaythlyn Smith suffered a devastating spinal cord injury when she was a passenger in a vehicle that careered off a bridge at high speed.
The 26-year-old said the impact crushed her spine “like a Coke can”, leaving her unable to move and waiting 15 minutes for emergency services.
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“It felt like I was watching a movie – it was an out of body experience,” Kaythlyn, from Kildare, Ireland, told Need To Know of the moment she went “flying off the bridge”.
“As it happened, I thought we’d be fine because I didn’t see the drop.
“It went in slow motion.
“The car landed on the headlights and flipped over.
“I started panicking when I realised I couldn’t move.
“There were brilliant people who lived close by, they stroked my hair, played music for me and kept me calm.
“Waiting for an ambulance felt like an eternity.
“I was in complete shock.
“You hear about these things but don’t expect it to happen to you.”
The driver, who was arrested at the scene, escaped the crash without a scratch and a court date is yet to be set, according to Kaythlyn.
At the hospital, doctors diagnosed her with an incomplete C5 spinal cord injury.
She was rushed into a nine-hour surgery where she had a titanium ribcage and titanium vertebrae inserted.
Then she spent six weeks in intensive care.
The devastating crash happened on 9th July last year.
Kaythlyn said: “When I first got to hospital, I didn’t want my family to panic so I tried to stay calm.
“I called my grandparents and said I wasn’t afraid.
“I was holding on for everything because you have no other option.
“It was life or death and I’m lucky to be alive.
“They said it was like a Coke can being squished from the back to the front.
“My nerves are all still intact.
“There’s something called spinal shock that takes six weeks to recover from so I had high hopes I’d get movement back.
“Every day, I was focusing on every day getting better and stronger.”
Kaythlyn stayed in hospital for seven months before finally returning home six weeks ago.
She now lives with her grandparents and relies on carers around the clock.
Kaythlyn said: “I used to be so active and independent, I lived alone and I just got my dream job doing laser hair removal.
“I travelled the world as a beautician.
“Now, it takes two people to get me ready for the day, I have carers pretty much 24/7.
“There’s a lot of pressure on my grandparents but they’ve adapted amazingly.
“I don’t know what I’d do without them.
“They’re there for me every hour of every single day.
“It can be harder for the people who love you and it breaks my heart to see them so sad for me.
“Mentally, having to wake up and get cared for from start to finish, with no independence, it takes a toll on you.
“To have people looking after me at 26 is very degrading.”
Kaythlyn now attends intensive rehabilitation three times a week and completes daily exercises using electrical stimulation pads.
She said: “It’s so intense and I’m being pushed to the limits.
“I love moving my body and seeing how far I can be pushed.
“I feel like I took everything for granted.
“If I could go back, I’d push my body to the limits and do whatever I could possibly be doing.”
Her next hope is stem cell treatment, which she believes could improve nerve function and she has set up a fundraiser to raise £35,000.
Kaythlyn added: “The hardest part is not knowing what the future is going to look like.
“I’d love to be independent, that’s my main goal and I’ll do whatever treatment I can.
“You don’t know what’s around the corner, there’s new medicine coming out every day.”
To donate, go to: Donate to I’ve Been Accepted for Stem Cell Therapy in Germany., organized by Kaythlyn Smith
