Three ops in bid to fix leg of dancing girl hit by car
ASCHOOLGIRL has undergone three surgeries including a major skin graft since sustaining a serious leg injury.
Olivia Hill was run over by a car which lost control on the ice covered roads of Bacup on December 29.
The 11-year-old was walking home having played out in the fresh snow when the reversing vehicle ran over her leg, breaking it above the ankle.
Olivia, who harbours a passion for street dancing having one several national competitions, spent 20 hours in surgery on January 5 during an unsuccessful skin graft to cover the open wound on her leg.
Mum Jenny Hill said the operation is a sign of how far her young daughter, whose leg has already been set with metal pins, has to go on her road to recovery.
Speaking on January 6, the 36-year-old said: “I’m just trying to distract her any way I can by playing games or watching videos; she loves Grey’s Anatomy and that’s all she’s watching at the moment.
“They were hoping to remove the cage and put the metalwork on the inside to hold the bone work yesterday.
“They have done that but they were also hoping to do a skin graft from her upper thigh but they couldn’t get it to take.
“It’s very intricate to take it was supposed to be a six hour operation but it just wouldn’t work.
“They kept at it, she was under for 20 hours. It was just awful really, the longest 20 hours of my life.”
Olivia has undergone three operations since the accident.
Doctors were due to try again on January 8 to take thin layers of skin from Olivia’s thigh to cover the open wound above her ankle.
“I’m just exhausted,” said Jenny. “I was just watching the clock throughout the surgery, I just kept getting told ‘it’s another few hours’ and ‘another few hours’.
“I was wondering whether it was safe to be under for that long.”
After playing out in the snow on December 29, Olivia was walking back to her home on Stack Lane in Bacup when a reversing car skidded on the ice and headed her way.
The 11-year-old tried to dive away from the vehicle but the car had lost purchase on the road and ended up running her over.
Jenny said: “I have a prosthetic leg, so with the snow I physically couldn’t get to her which was just awful.
“Someone called an ambulance and my sister helped me get out to Olivia, I didn’t realise how bad it was at first; it just looked like she had fallen over.
“They tried to bring the helicopter out but it wasn’t safe with the weather so we went by ambulance to hospital.”
Olivia is a talented and passionate dancer who travels around Britain taking part in competitions and shows with the Dansworks Dance Academy of Performing Arts in Bacup.
Jenny says her daughter has a vast trophy hall from her successes at dance competitions and was even due to star in a pantomime.
Although Olivia is looking at a long recovery, her mother says that she is touched by the support which is coming her way, especially from Olivia’s fellow dancers at the academy.
She said: “I’m just expecting it to be a long journey but the amount of message I’m getting has been amazing.
“People have been messaging the dance school to support her.
“There are so many people backing you which is so touching.”
The Olivia’s Dansworks Family gofundme page has already raised more than £650. Olivia has already told doctors that she has ambitions of becoming a surgeon when she grows up.