Rhianna Benson
A British woman has been left with both permanent injuries and PTSD after falling down a drain shaft while on holiday with friends.
Danna Smith, 28, had been travelling through Luxembourg back in 2023, when the group opted to venture out on a late-night walk.
During her stroll, the Manchester-based content creator came across a drain that would usually have been covered by three metal panels.
Upon her approach, however, Smith had failed to notice that one of said panels was actually missing.
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After stepping onto the drain, she suddenly plummeted down a 15ft shaft into a dark pit before crashing down onto the ground below.
During the journey, Smith not only violently scraped her back and chin, but lost consciousness.
Upon impact, she regained consciousness, realising she'd also snapped two of her teeth, and was covered in blood.
Looking back on the incident, Smith recalled: "It was really dark, I didn't know how long I was going to be falling for.
"I was unconscious for a little bit and I regained consciousness when I was at the bottom."
Speaking to press afterwards, Smith revealed that her friends hadn't even noticed her fall, being that she'd walked ahead of the group.
It wasn't until a passerby urged them to call an ambulance that they realised what had happened.
"I thought I had to get myself out but you really shouldn't move when you've fallen so hard because you don't know if you've broken something," she explained. "It was pretty horrendous."
Smith recalled: "There was nothing around me and I didn't know what happened and I was just in the bottom of this manhole, it was so scary.
"Then I realised I was covered in blood and was in a lot of pain.
"I went into complete shock and I was panicking because I thought I would be stuck in the bottom of this manhole."
Footage of Smith awaiting rescue within the dark hole was recorded at the time by witnesses, and was subsequently uploaded to TikTok.
Eventually, police, fire and the Luxembourg ambulance service extracted her from the hole before before blue-lighting her to hospital.
Thankfully, she avoided breaking any bones, but was unable to close her mouth for a week.
She also obtained a permanent scar on her chin.
Despite the fall occurring almost two years ago, the social media star now claims she's been left with a number of previously irrational fears.
She said: "When I was on the stretcher there were lots of people around me, it was like a film.
"It gave me a bit of PTSD because I'm scared of things I wasn't scared of before like flying, and I hate the idea of falling.
"I have great anxiety of being out of control and falling again so I avoid grids now.
"I wouldn't have been scared to walk over them before but I wouldn't dare walk over them after everything that's happened."