Holly Scott was just 22 when a crash shattered her car, her body and her dreams. Eight years on, as she continues her recovery, she reminds us why it’s important to take care on the roads.
Smiley, bubbly, energetic – anyone who has the pleasure of meeting Holly Scott would not suspect for a second the dark days she’s been through, the strength she’s had to show and the physical pain she still endures.
There’s just one small sign – a tattoo on her left wrist with the word ‘Alive’.
“That was my first tattoo, on the one year anniversary of my car crash,” she explains as she runs her fingers gently over the words.
“I wanted to celebrate how far I’d come in some ways, and to remind myself that I’ve had a lot of dark days in my recovery … but I still have a heartbeat, I’m still here.”
‘All I could do was scream’
It was a cold July day in 2017 when Holly’s life was turned upside down.
“I had just turned 22 years old. I was in an era where I was just starting my life out, setting myself up,” she says. “I had just started a new full time job. I was saving money because I wanted to go travelling. I was going out with my friends a lot. I had a new relationship at the time, which was exciting.”
After a day working as a pharmacy assistant in Adelaide, she called her boyfriend to let him know she was on her way to his house in Echunga.
“It reached the time I should have been at his house, but I wasn’t. He called me a few times, but I didn’t answer. He waited for my car to pull into the driveway, but it didn’t.
“In the end he decided to go looking for me.
“He found me, he found my car. I was a street away from his house with my car wrapped around a tree.
“He ran up to my car and he saw I was in it. I was trapped. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t speak. All I could do was scream.”
Police later determined that Holly had most likely swerved to avoid a kangaroo, before overcorrecting and slamming her car into a tree.
“In the end, the whole street was lined with emergency services trying to save my life. There were multiple MFS, police. Even Major Crash was called to the scene because nobody thought I would survive.”
Family rush to her side
“My dad got a knock at the door from a police officer, who was a good friend, telling him that I had been in a serious car crash and I might not make it to hospital alive. So dad, my mum, my whole family, they rushed to the hospital to just try to be there for me.
“My family camped out in the waiting room for days and for nights, hoping that I would survive this car crash, and it was very touch-and-go at the time.”
Holly was placed in a coma for more than two weeks to let her broken body heal.
“Before the crash, I’d never broken a bone in my body, but I definitely made up for it. This crash essentially broke my entire body.
“I broke both my legs, my femur bones. I shattered my pelvis completely. I broke my hip and tailbone. I fractured vertebrae in my spine. I tore my liver and spleen. And I had multiple bleeds on the brain that led to a severe brain injury.
“When I was in my coma, I had two major surgeries that were classified as secondary trauma surgeries, putting my broken body back together again and drilling the metal work into my bones.
“My legs and pelvis now have metal rods, pins and screws holding them together.”
Steps towards recovery
Weeks later, Holly started her recovery journey in the brain injury ward of a rehab hospital. She was the youngest person there.
“I was lost and I was confused. I was driving home from work, but waking up to this, and my friends were going out and having fun, and I was stuck in a hospital needing two nurses to get me out of bed.
“I had physios, I had speech therapists, I had occupational therapists, I had all these therapies coming into my room in rehab. But at the end of the day, it was up to me to put in the work. I could have easily pushed them away and said I didn’t want to do it, but I lent in.
“I couldn’t do anything the way I used to. I couldn’t stand in the shower. I couldn’t make my own breakfast standing up. I was, at the time when I got discharged, out of my wheelchair but on two walking sticks. It was a really hard time.”
The crash had also left other, more hidden scars.
“Getting into a car was absolutely terrifying for me.
“I remember when I was finally discharged from hospital, dad was driving so slow, trying to keep me calm. But being in a car again, I hated every second of it. I just wanted to get the hell out of that car.”
The fire inside
During the dark days – and Holly admits there were many – there was one thing that kept her going besides the unwavering support of family, friends and the Lifetime Support Authority.
“I remember so vividly seeing a news clipping of my car crash. It said ‘22-year-old girl fighting for life after serious car crash’, showing images and photos of my car, my car up against a tree.
“You know, I’m so much more than a couple-second headline on the news.
“That’s when the fire started in me. I felt I needed to change that. I wanted people to realise and really understand what I was struggling with and going through because of that car crash.
“You don’t see the impact that it has on that person, on the families, the domino effect on so many people.”
Drive safe, arrive safe
It’s this domino effect that Holly wants other drivers to remember when they’re on the roads, especially at busy times like school holidays.
“Don’t ever be so selfish to think that it’s just you that’s impacted if you have a car crash.
“There are actually so many people involved. It’s the emergency services who go to those crash scenes and can have PTSD later. It’s the family members and friends. It’s the witnesses who have seen the crash itself.
“It frustrates me that people don’t take this as seriously as what it is. If you’re old enough to drive a heavy piece of machinery, you’re old enough to realise the impact it can make. Drive safe, arrive safe.
“Driving a car, it’s your transport from A to B, but it can also be your coffin. It can also change your life like it has mine.”
How Holly is going today
Eight years on, Holly’s life is still impacted by the crash every day.
“I look fine, which is great, but I’m still dealing with lots of challenges.”
The metal work that’s holding her lower body together still causes constant pain. She can’t jump or run. She can’t stand or walk for long periods of time. Any pregnancies in her future will be complicated. And just last year, she had to undergo further surgery – and overcome her PTSD relating to hospitals – to remove some metal that was clipping a tendon every time she crossed her legs or walked.
Then there’s the invisible nature of her brain injury.
“It’s constantly frustrating and people just don’t see the fatigue I struggle with.”
But Holly can also sense a shift, a longing to create memories and an identity beyond her life-defining crash.
“Last year, I went travelling for three months with my partner now, and it was amazing. It was so, so good. It was great for me to make some new memories in my 20s, some that aren’t of hard, crappy times.”
And, in a full-circle moment, she’s also now working as an assistant nurse in the same brain injury ward where she was once a patient.
“I love it, but it is challenging because I know how hard it is being there, being in their shoes. I’ve been the patient – no one else in that ward can say they understand what the patient is going through.
“But I have finally found my passion.”
Looking for more information to ensure your travel safely these school holidays? Check out the THINK! Road Safety campaign for tips on how to drive safe and arrive safe.
