Inspirational courage of 24-year-old fashion student and model’s who lost her leg to a New York taxi driver
Sian Green was lying in an ambulance, an oxygen mask over her face. Nearby, she heard a paramedic hurriedly briefing the hospital that he was bringing in an amputation victim.
‘I screamed at the paramedic to save my leg,’ she says, the memory still painfully vivid.
‘But he leaned over and said, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. There is nothing we can do.” I knew then that nothing in my life would ever be the same again.’
The 24-year-old fashion student and model’s injuries were so serious she had to have her left leg amputated below the knee.
A taxi had ploughed into her on the first day of a dream holiday to New York with her best friend in the summer.
At the time it was reported that the taxi driver simply lost control of his vehicle. But it now seems that, in a moment of apparent road rage, he used his car to ram a cyclist with whom he had been arguing moments before.
His taxi mounted the pavement and mowed down Sian.
‘It was a freak accident, but totally avoidable,’ she insists. ‘I saw the driver deliberately mount the pavement where my friend and I were walking so that he could get at the cyclist. It was out-of-control road rage.’
In her first newspaper interview since returning home two weeks ago, Sian, whose lower left leg was severed by the car’s bumper, says she remembers waking up on the ground and feeling nothing at first because she was in shock.
A few moments later pain, unlike anything she had ever felt before, kicked in. The severed limb had been kept in a container full of ice but the hospital surgeons were unable to reattach it.
Sian Green’s first TV interview after being maimed by NYC taxi
They did, however, successfully battle to save her other foot, which was badly mangled.
At first Sian, from Leicester, struggled to cope with the loss of her lower left leg, but six weeks on she has bounced bravely back.
‘Sometimes I look at the stump and it seems alien,’ she says. ‘It really does take some mental adjustment because it’s so different from what I’m used to.
‘I get “phantom pain” because my brain still thinks the left leg is all there. But what I really hate is that I can’t get out of bed and go to the bathroom without assistance.
‘I’m also trying to adjust to the fact that I can’t drive until I get my new prosthetic leg. There are so many things I can’t do without help – and having to rely on people is difficult because I’m very independent.
‘But I try to remember that my dependence on others is not for ever and to be grateful that I am alive.’
Sometimes, when you meet people who have faced great trauma, it feels as if something redemptive is nestling within the tragedy – from which the victim emerges stronger than before.
Sian is determined not to be crushed by the tragedy. She explains she is eagerly looking forward to being fitted with her prosthetic leg in six to eight weeks – a new leg which she says, giggling with girlish delight, will allow her to wear high heels again.
‘I’ve always been a strong person and I’m determined that this won’t change me. I’m still the same person, except the way I look at life now is different. I have a new appreciation for the sheer joy of being alive.’
Strong: The fashion student is determined to rebuild her life
Of course, she admits there have been down-days when she has felt sorry for herself. There have also been periods of weeping.
‘But as my boyfriend William, who used to be a soldier, keeps reminding me, people have lost both legs and still managed to live full lives.
‘I only have to remember the Paralympics to know that’s true. And when I see people like Heather Mills, who also lost a leg in a traffic accident, it is so inspirational.’
It was on that bright summer’s morning, just 12 hours after landing in New York, that Sian discovered the best and worst of the bustling city.
She and her best friend, Keshia Warren, had set off from their hotel near Times Square and were strolling along 6th Avenue.
They had been planning the trip since the previous Christmas and were in high spirits as they headed for the Dash clothing store, owned by reality TV personality Kim Kardashian. Stopping to buy a soft drink from a hot dog stall, the girls spotted a confrontation between a yellow cab driver and a courier cyclist.
Sian says: ‘The courier hit the taxi window with his hand and then kept going. The cab driver then stopped, manoeuvred his car on to the pavement and drove fast at the cyclist.
‘He hit the cycle and knocked the courier off. I realised he was heading my way with the crumpled wreck of a bike on top of the bonnet.
I kept thinking the driver would stop – but then everything went black. It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to think.
Afterwards I realised there was nothing I could have done to get out of the way. If I had gone left or right, it would still have hit me.’
Sian regained consciousness a few minutes later, lying face down in a flower bed. ‘I saw blood on my wrist and felt really weak,’ she says.
‘I couldn’t feel my legs when I tried to move them. I could hear my friend Keshia screaming and tried to get up to see if she was hurt, but I just couldn’t move.’
The scene was chaotic. Unknown to Sian, she had been tossed into the air, but luckily fell in soft earth rather than on tarmac or concrete.
Only the speedy action of passers-by – strangers including a plumber who took the belt from his trousers to apply a tourniquet to the bloody left stump and a woman who wrapped a dog leash around Sian’s other leg – saved her from bleeding to death.
Reunion: The actions of TV’s Dr Oz (left) and plumber David Justino (right) saved Sian from bleeding to death
A celebrity television doctor also rushed to the scene to advise and helped a food-seller pack the severed lower leg in a cooler full of ice.
‘I felt nauseous,’ Sian says. ‘The pain in my legs was excruciating. I was conscious but had no idea how badly hurt I was. To be honest, I thought I had broken my leg.’
She was taken to hospital in the ambulance and rushed into theatre. ‘There were about a dozen medical people around me,’ she says.
‘It was like a scene from ER. I didn’t know then that my lower left leg and foot had already been severed at the scene – but when I woke up five hours later I instinctively knew it was gone.’
When doctors confirmed her worst fears, she burst into tears.
‘It was a week before I was able to look at it. Every time they changed my dressing I would turn my head to make sure I didn’t see what was there.’
It was, understandably, an emotional moment when she finally saw the stump. ‘I had my leg and foot for 24 years and suddenly it was gone. It takes a lot of readjustment – emotionally and mentally.
‘But, strangely, when I finally examined it at length, I felt complete calmness and said to myself, “At least I still have my life.” I could easily have been killed.’
Sian has had four operations and two weeks of rehabilitation. ‘At first I couldn’t even put a sock on my good leg because the skin was so sensitive.
‘Even the weight of the bed sheets hurt. Thankfully, Keshia was with me the whole time.
‘She slept on a bed nearby and is coping with post-traumatic stress herself because she saw everything.’
Sian also suffered other injuries including a 4in gash at the back of her head – which was undetected for two days because the doctors were so busy concentrating on her limbs.
They told Sian that they believe the head injury has affected her short-term memory.
‘There are times when I wake up and forget that I only have one good leg,’ she says. ‘I got out of bed the other night to go to the bathroom and fell over.
‘Thankfully, I live with my boyfriend and he’s been totally supportive through the whole ordeal.’
Positive: Sian (left) is still angry over what happened, but she is battling on with her life. Pictured here on ITV’s Daybreak with friend Keisha Warren, who was with her when the accident happened
Sian also praises her close-knit family – mother Sonia, father Jason and two sisters – for helping her cope with the way her life has changed.
Even so, there are days when she cannot help but be overwhelmed by her situation.
‘Sometimes I’m not as happy, not as smiley. Of course I still do smile, but what happened is always at the back of my mind.
‘I get flashbacks four or five times every day. I see the car coming towards me with the bicycle on it, then there is just darkness.’
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has opened a criminal investigation into the accident – but is yet to decide whether to press charges against the driver, Faysal Kabir Mohammad Himon.
It emerged he was not licensed to drive the cab as he had committed previous motoring offences and was already serving a suspension. Those earlier violations should have prevented him from working with any taxi firm.
But he slipped through the net because of a computer glitch at the New York taxi commission, the regulatory body.
He has now accepted a 30-day licence suspension in lieu of the earlier offences – but maintains the crash was not his fault.
His denial provokes Sian’s first real flash of anger. ‘I still can’t believe that he wasn’t arrested at the scene – but the problem was I was out of it and Keshia was too traumatised to say what we saw.
‘It wasn’t until we gave our statements to the police that people started to realise what had really happened.
‘The taxi driver has tried to make contact with my family, but we are not interested.
‘I hope he feels guilty for the rest of his life. He used his car as a weapon in anger and he could have killed someone.’
Sian now plans to sue the taxi driver, the company he worked for, the company the cycle courier works for and the New York taxi commission.
‘I think someone has to pay for what has happened and the impact it had on my family and friends,’ she says. ‘Everyone has had to change something about their lives to help me through this.’
She believes it is crucial major cities worldwide should run campaigns urging motorists to take a break and calm down if they suffer road rage.
‘Look what can happen to innocent people if you don’t take your time on the roads,’ Sian says. ‘If you find yourself getting angry or flustered, take a minute. Park up and calm down if you have to.
‘It’s not worth putting someone life at risk.’
Sian is clearly still angry, but is determined to instead focus on getting well. ‘That’s where I have to put my energy,’ she says.
‘Of course I’m furious that both men have just walked away. But having come so close to dying has made me appreciate living so much more.
‘There we were, walking and enjoying ourselves and it could all have been over because of someone’s stupidity. That’s why you shouldn’t take anything for granted – it can all be gone in a moment
Sources:
Daily Mail
Labels: campus news, global
