by Kathryn Boast
20 August 2010
A woman who fractured her spine in three places in a horrific car accident only ten days after passing her test has started work as a nurse - in the hospital that saved her life.
Rachael Medlock, 20, suffered an accident in 2006 when her Ford Fiesta flipped and hit a tree. She was on a ventilator for 50 days and connected to a life support machine. Doctors initially feared she would suffer brain death.
However, she astounded medical staff by regaining conciousness after three weeks and eventually, after many months of gruelling physiotherapy, she was able to walk and breathe unaided. She then had to slowly regain her strength: her muscles were so weak at one point that her mother had to hold her eyelids open for her.
Now Rachael has completed her first year of a nursing diploma and works as a trainee at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge.