‘Surviving horror crash meant I could face anything in life’

A WOMAN who narrowly escaped death after suffering horrific injuries in a car accident near Kells more than 35 years ago says she believes she was meant to survive to make her mark in the world.

Bernadette Colgan (61), a Waterford native was just 26 when she was involved in a head on collision in August 1985 resulting in her being pulled from the wreckage of her car and rushed to Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan where doctors fought to save her life.

So serious was her condition that a priest was called to give the young woman her last rites after she suffered internal bleeding, a fractured pelvis, a lacerated kidney, a broken leg and broken toes in the freak accident resulting in her spending six weeks in hospital recovering from her harrowing injuries.

Unbelievably the determined young woman walked down the aisle just four months later and married the love of her life Athboy man Michael Carroll later going on to have five children.

Bernadette who was working for The Northern Health Board at the time says she feels like this experience gave her the strength to “face anything in life.”

“I felt the accident was a wake up call for me, in that I felt there was a reason for me to survive such a car wreck so as to leave my mark in this world.

“Looking back over my life so far I know that I am so glad that I survived.

“Covid-19 is now a new ball game for me, but I consider that surviving that car accident has given me a resilience to survive this and whatever else life has and will throw at me.”

The inspirational woman describes what happened on that fateful day in 1985. She said:

“I remember it as if it only happened yesterday.

“It was a head on collision with another car, luckily I was wearing my belt at the time and didn’t go through the windscreen.

“I remember the paramedics arriving and saying we need to cut her out of the car and somebody else said no we can’t wait for the fire brigade we need to get her out now and they pulled me out of the car.

“My life was saved because of their intuition to do the right thing at the right time and get me into the hospital.

“Having being anointed within hours of arriving into the hospital I knew I was going to survive the ordeal.

“I never thought I was going to die but people around me were worried but I thought I’m not giving into this, as far as I was concerned, I was there and needed to get better and I took one day at a time.

“I broke my right femur, small bones in my right foot, had a lacerated kidney and mangled my pelvis, which left me with the appearance of my right leg being shorter than the left.

“The surgeon stabilised the internal bleeding and put my right leg on traction. A week later I was back in theatre when they put a plate on my femur to keep it together whilst it healed. I was advised to have that plate removed at a later stage, which I did a year after my first son Christopher was born.

“I spoke with the doctors and just decided that something good was going to happen every day. I had about ten tubes going through me and every day one tube came out and they kept saying to me, it’s amazing you are actually progressing so well.

“I had a long recovery but I had the most wonderful care from the nurses and it just all fell into place and I got through it.”

The mother of five had a pretty good incentive to get up on her feet again as she explains:

“I had a brother who had been ordained in June of that year, he was heading back to Africa and I was going to be his first wedding and there was no way I was giving up that wedding so he married me.

“I got married in December and I remember at the bottom on the church saying to my father I am not taking the crutch with me so I dropped the crutch and I limped up to the alter and got married.”

Bernadette, mother to Christopher, Andrew, Anna Laura and Peter, went on to face more challenges in her life when her third child, Peter who had Edwards Syndrome was stillborn in 1992. Edwards Syndrome is a rare genetic defect that results in several abnormalities in the body of the babies born with condition.

“I was pregnant with a baby that was not going to survive but as long as I was pregnant that baby was alive inside me.

“Eventually we were told that he wasn’t going to survive the birth. I’m lucky that I have a place where I can go and visit him, I call it his garden. Every time his birthday comes up on March 10th we go out for a meal as a family.

“He was born on a Friday and was buried on a Sunday. The ward sister in the hospital wanted to take him away and bury him in the hospital grounds and I went to a priest and he said Bernadette if you want to take him home what is stopping you go and get your child.

“We made the most of it and gave him a beautiful send off.”

Bernadette says her near death experience spurred her on to live life to the full including a once-in-a-lifetime experience volunteering at a school and orphanage with her daughter in Kenya.

“I had a wonderful family and friends who were so supportive. It happened and it was part of my life experience but it does make you a stronger person going through something like that and coming out the other end.”