Woman left with no forehead after crash has spare one just in case it needs replacing
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Supplied
In 2016, while her boyfriend was driving her across Ireland, an exhausted 22-year-old Grainne Kealy propped her feet onto the dashboard of the car in order to feel more comfortable.
What she never contemplated, however, was that this decision would change her life forever, after a catastrophic car crash would see her knees plummet into her forehead at such force that it would shatter all the bones in her face.
Speaking exclusively to LADbible Group this week - eight years after the terrifying collision - she recalled the night that changed her life forever.
"I hate to say it but I think I'm probably known for having my feet on the dashboard and having no forehead," she initially joked.
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"When I was 22, my boyfriend at the time and myself were driving from Galway to Leish, from where we were living to where I'm from.
"And along the journey somewhere, I decided foolishly to put my feet up on the dashboard. I thought I'd be more comfortable."
It was then when Grainne's boyfriend's Jeep glided at speed over a patch of black ice and slammed into a wall.
While her now-ex broke his nose, because her feet were resting on the airbag - which subsequently opened at 120 miles an hour, her feet were pushed into her face, breaking every single bone.
"I had a CSF leak," she recalled. "So spinal fluid was leaking out through my nose, lost teeth, had brain seizures after it. My parents were told they couldn't give them a 50-50 chance.
"I remember my mother telling me they asked and the doctors just didn't know at the time."
In the weeks that followed, Grainne underwent several surgeries, the first of which was 10.5 hours long and saw medics putting her 'face back together'.
"I like to say it was a little bit like Humpty Dumpty," she joked.
A few months after her initial set of surgeries, doctors found that Grainne was suffering with an infection in the bone of her forehead, which needed removing.
As a result, she was left without a forehead for a period of two years.
"It just sunk in because obviously there's no bone there to hold the skin, so the skin just sunk in to my head. It was strange," she described her facial structure.
"I didn't have any protective headgear. I do remember asking if I needed any, I think I was open to it.
"Just because I did feel very exposed. I don't know if I was touching my brain."
Since then, Grainne has received a prosthetic forehead in order to return her face to its original shape.
"I have a beautiful Italian ceramic forehead," she laughed. "You know what, it is quite funny when you think about it. Like you have to laugh at parts of it.
"I mean, to think I'm sitting here talking to you with a forehead that was made in Italy. Like, it's still so strange for me."
In fact, she also boasts having a spare forehead on hand at her local Dublin hospital in case her ceramic one becomes damaged in some way.
"[My surgeon] was like, 'You know, hopefully we'll never have to use it'. It's just kind of a wait and see kind of thing, I suppose.
Grainne bravely went on to describe her thoughts on her new forehead now.
"When I look at my face, I see the differences and it's just a constant reminder."
She went on: "I mean, I can live with that. You know what I mean? I'm alive. I'm happy.
"But it is a constant thing. I don't think it's something I'll ever get over. And I think coming to terms with that was huge. Like, I'm OK."