Judo star speaks for first time after coma
Mother’s delight as bike crash victim opens her eyes
judo star Stephanie Inglis has spoken her first words since she was critically injured in a motorbike accident in Vietnam.
In a dramatic turn of events, the 27-year-old Commonwealth silver medallist’s parents disclosed that she had opened her eyes and said ‘hi’.
doctors initially gave Miss Inglis only a 1 per cent chance of survival after she received serious head injuries when she fell off a motorcycle taxi on her way to work in Ha Long on May 10.
Her mother Alison, 52, described the latest step in her daughter’s recovery as ‘absolutely phenomenal’, adding that she is now breathing without assistance.
Mrs Inglis has already said that friends, well-wishers and complete strangers who helped raise £300,000 to pay for her treatment and repatriation had ‘saved her life’.
The donations meant that Miss Inglis could return home via air ambulance and receive specialist life-saving treatment at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital. Mrs Inglis said: ‘She opened her eyes and she mouthed “hi”, and that was absolutely phenomenal. She’s very determined. She is very disciplined, obviously with the sport she did.
‘Even when she started to wake up she opened her eye partly, then she started moving her hand and then she started to become aware.
‘We were trying to explain to her, you have fallen off a bike, you have to rehab and she is constantly moving her arms and legs. So I think the strength, discipline and her body strength is really what is bringing her through.’
An entry on the official Save Steph fundraising Facebook page said: ‘Stephanie is now breathing without any assistance.
‘However, she still has the tracheotomy in place and although she now has a speaking attachment in place, this is causing her significant distress and we will be relieved when this can be removed.
‘Stephanie has been cleared of all her infections and the hospital believes she has fought and come through all of these. They are really happy with Stephanie and as soon as they can make her more comfortable they will.’
The post, believed to be written by a friend of the family, added: ‘We met Robert [Miss Inglis’ father] and Alison in the visitors’ lounge and Alison told me Stephanie has been sleeping most of the day due to some painkillers she is on. When we got to the room Stephanie was asleep. Alison gently awakened her and said “Steph, look who’s here to see you”.
‘Steph partially opened her eye and when she saw me smiled and for the first time looked straight at me and said “hi”. We were speechless. I was overwhelmed.
‘Her body has been through so much the slightest thing exhausts her, but for just that magical moment when she smiled and said “hi”, she looked exactly like the girl who last burst into my house to tell me about all the wonderful adventures she was planning.’
Miss Inglis is originally from daviot, Inverness, but has been living in dunfermline. She had been in Vietnam for four months teaching under-privileged children when the accident happened.
After treatment in Hanoi she was later transferred to a hospital in Bangkok for further treatment, and doctors finally allowed her to travel back to Scotland earlier this week.
Friends and family set up a crowdfunding campaign to pay for her medical costs after it emerged her travel insurance was not valid because she had been in the country more than 31 days.
‘She has been through so much’