Originallyย published on 22 March 2017.
I have managed to find the strength and willpower to keep going and to keep fighting. The support of the general public has been incredible and I was definitely able to draw strength from that. The support of my family was something else and never wavered.
Through writing my book Scarred, But Not For Life as well as recent interviews I have accepted, the true version of events has been told as I experienced it. Dragged 780m under a taxi and along tar, my body was broken and battered. I sustained severe injuries and lost 58% of my body's tissue, muscle and flesh. I had seven vertebrae fractured as well as both knees, my right hip and left baby finger. My left ear was almost entirely torn off and I had an extensive extra-cranial injury. My recovery process was long and intense beginning with an initial stay in ICU in isolation for just under three months. The next four and a half years would consist of being in and out of various hospitals having close to 40 medical procedures all under general anesthetic.ย It would also consist of intensive rehabilitation through physiotherapy and Biokinetics.
Due to all of this, my career at the Bar as an advocate which I had been building up was lost and focus was all on recovery. My fiancรฉ and I got married in 2012 but after my initial stay in hospital, we moved into my parent's house in order for me to be nursed by my mom who took three months off work to look after me. Challenges didn't stop there though and I would have to get over my husband having an affair with a good friend of ours as well as go through difficult trials arising from the taxi incident with the driver eventually absconding. My family would also have to cope with both of my brothers battling drug addiction.
My marriage is now no more and that too is ultimately a loss. But through everything, I have managed to find the strength and willpower to keep going and to keep fighting. The support of the general public has been incredible and I was definitely able to draw strength from that. The support of my family was something else and never wavered.
My story is not a story of misery and being a victim. Rather, it is a story of overcoming what may come your way and having the resolve to keep going. It is a story of strength and hopefully proof of the fact that one never knows how strong one is until being strong is the only choice you have. It is also hopefully a story that inspires people and reminds them that your mind can be your greatest asset if you allow it to be.
Written by: Kim McCusker, author of Scarred, But Not For Life