A WOMAN has described the moment her legs were straightened at the roadside after a head-on crash as the “worst and most painful experience of my life.”
Sarah Richardson-Kane, 31, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, had gone out to buy ingredients for the dinner she was making for her family when she was involved in a crash on the A167 between Thirsk and Northallerton.
Mrs Richardson-Kane said how she had come home from work to prepare dinner for her family and forgot she needed breadcrumbs to make the fishcake.
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She decided to travel to her mother's home to grab some as she only lived “a few minutes away in the next village.”
However, the next thing she remembered was waking up in front of her car with the fire service cutting the roof off.
Mrs Richardson-Kane added: “I remember my mum saying, ‘you’ve been in an accident, just keep calm and don’t touch your legs’.
“I immediately touched my legs, and I could feel huge dints in my thighs, and I couldn’t move my feet.”
The Great North Air Ambulance Service soon arrived on the scene and gave Mrs Richardson-Kane advanced critical care at the roadside, including strong pain relief, before airlifting her to James Cook University Hospital where she stayed for over two weeks.
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She spoke of how she remembered the doctors telling her they were going to have to “straighten” her legs out.
She added: “It was the worst and most painful experience of my life.
“I have had kids with no pain relief and that was worse even with all of the drugs they gave me.”
Mrs Richardson-Kane suffered two femur fractures and had pins and rods in both legs from her hips to her shins as well as a broken nose.
She added: “My nose was cut underneath, so it had to be stuck back together.
“I remember I went to wipe my nose and it lifted off my face. My husband passed out when they glued it.”
The 31-year-old recalled how bad the pain was when she awoke in hospital and that she had, what she described as, scaffolding holding her together.
Mrs Richardson-Kane added: “It took me the best part of a year to walk again, and I still say now that I waddle and look like a penguin.”
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This year Mrs Richardson-Kane is taking part in the Great North Run for GNAAS, and ten years after her accident she says she will be marking her anniversary with this challenge and will then be moving on with her life.
She concluded: “I still think about the accident quite a lot, especially in certain situations like when my little boy asks to play football and I can’t.
“My outlook on life and death has changed. I don’t fear death anymore and I believe in making every day count.”
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