A woman who was left without a forehead following a car crash has issued a warning after seeing pictures shared by celebrities with their feet up on the dashboard.
Grainne Kealy’s knees broke every bone in her face when her boyfriend’s jeep skidded on a patch of black ice, hit a wall, and triggered the airbag, which fired her legs toward her head.
The accident in 2006 left Kealy with a minor brain injury and severe injuries to her face, which was so damaged that surgeons had to remove her forehead.
She was 22 at the time.
A decade later Kealy summoned up the courage to share the shocking images of herself without her forehead—before she was fitted with a ceramic one—hoping to warn others.
“This breaks my heart to think of how many millions of people have seen these celebrities with their feet on the dashboard,” she wrote. “I can only hope that people will eventually learn from my mistake.”
“On the 16th of December 2006, my boyfriend and I left our home in Galway for my home place in Laois. Going through Borris-in-Ossory the jeep skidded on a patch of black ice and crashed into a wall.”
The jeep was destroyed. Her boyfriend survived with minor injuries. Kealy’s life, however, was turned “upside down”—all because of where she had put her feet.
“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 realizing.”
“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.”
Kealy explains that airbags inflate at a speed of 200mph.
“I had multiple facial fractures (my mother was told that I had broken every bone in my face), a CSF (Cerebrospinal Fluid) leak from my brain and oh yeah I lost two teeth!”
She said that she doesn’t remember the three months before the accident and little of the month that followed.
“One of my first memories is looking in the mirror for the first time. I didn’t recognize the face looking back at me. That is one of the worse memories I have and one that I hope with all my heart not many people will ever have to go through.”
Doctors later told her that her knees had pushed her face inward and upward and that I needed taking apart and putting back together.
“In 2007 I experienced a setback and had to have my forehead removed. Yes......my forehead! And yes........all of it! I lived without my forehead for two years until the 17th of June 2009 when I got my brand new Italian ceramic forehead.”
“I’m sure most of you reading this are a little puzzled by this ... I know I was when they told me. I had nothing in place of my forehead for two years. My head sunk in and I looked a little strange. ”
Kealy said she plucked up the courage to share her story several years ago. When she still saw so many people with their feet up in their cars, in 2017 she decided to go one step further and published the images.
She ends her message by saying, “PLEASE KEEP YOUR FEET ON THE FLOOR IN A VEHICLE........FRONT AND BACK PASSENGERS!”
“One of the worse parts about it is that it seems so obvious when you think about it. So please listen to me and learn from my horrible experience.”
