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Woman Lost Her FOREHEAD After Her Knees Slammed Into Her Face At 120mph In Car Crash

A woman who lost her FOREHEAD after a car crash wants other passengers to know that there are dangers when resting your legs on a dashboard. 

Grainne Kelly broke every bone in her face when she rested her feet on the dashboard of her boyfriend’s jeep when it crashed into a wall and the airbag inflated underneath her feet.

Grainne, from Laois, Ireland, was told by doctors that she would have to have her forehead removed and it would be a two-year wait before she could get it fixed.

The 35-year-old wants others to be aware of the dangers of resting your feet on a car dashboard.

She told The Sun: “I had nothing in place of my forehead. My head sunk in and I looked a ­little strange.”

The accident happened when Grainne was sat in her fella’s jeep, which happened to skid out of control on black ice whilst he was driving her home.

Years on, she is still suffering from the effects of the acquired brain injuries.

Credit: Grainne Kelly

At the time, Grainne had been 22-years-old. In 2017, she explained: “I had decided along the way that I would be more comfortable if my feet were on the dashboard.

“It was something I rarely did and only did that morning as I had bought a new pair of Ugg boots and knew that I wouldn’t dirty the ­dashboard.

“Silly when you think about it.

“By doing this my feet were placed directly on top of the airbag without realising.

“When the jeep collided with the wall the airbags inflated as they do but because my feet were on top of mine it actually pushed my feet, knees first into my face.”

When the car crashed, the airbag inflated which meant her face suffered the full force of the impact at 120mph.

When Grainne was rushed to the hospital, the doctors informed her that she had suffered from multiple facial fractures.

She had also a cerebrospinal fluid leak from her brain, which meant that she required treatment by a neurosurgeon at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital.

She recalled: “They told me that I had pushed in and up my face and they would have to basically pull it all out and put it back together.”

Although the operation was determined to be a success, Grainne ended up suffering from further complications which meant she had to head back to hospital.

Doctors were left with no choice but to remove her forehead and it wasn’t until 2009 that she had a custom Italian ceramic forehead fitted.

Grainne, who is being helped in her recovery by Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, confessed: “I still dislike looking in a mirror and I do not like my face.”

Credit: Grainne Kelly

To this day, Grainne says the car crash has had an effect on her.

She said: “I constantly lose words while in the middle of a conversation. This can happen to me 20 times a day.

“I get headaches when too many people are talking around and I sometimes find it difficult to stay focused.”

Following the trauma, Grainne is begging others to be more careful when in the car as a passenger.

She said: “I would hate for another ­person’s family to have to get that dreaded phone call as mine did.”

In 2018, she made further warnings on Facebook by posting Snapchat pictures of various celebrities who had their feet on dashboards.

She wrote: “[These] people… do not realise that they are sending out the WRONG message by putting their feet on the dashboard!!”

She added: “If only they knew how dangerous it is.

“To say this breaks my heart would be an understatement. I feel helpless looking at these photos.”

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Written by Aimee Walker

Aimee is a senior content editor at IGV who specialises in finding the best original stories, trending topics and entertainment news. She graduated from Birmingham City University with a degree in Media and Communications.