Corsham crash girl Leonie is still suffering (From This Is Wiltshire)

Corsham crash girl Leonie is still suffering

7:20am Monday 16th November 2009

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Corsham schoolgirl Leonie Newbury is looking forward to her 16th birthday a year after she was involved in a near-fatal car accident in Chippenham.

The 15-year-old of Katherine Park, is still recovering from the accident which left her in intensive care after the car she was travelling in struck a wall outside Chippenham Community Hospital on the evening of November 9 2008.

She spent five weeks in hospital being transferred between Bristol Royal Hospital For Children, and Frenchay, in Bristol before she was discharged two days before Christmas.

Her mum Tammy Raeburn said the accident has completely changed their lives.

She said: “I am far more protective. I need to know where she is going and when she will be back.

“Leonie has changed a lot too, she is a lot quieter now. Her confidence has taken a big knock and she doesn’t go out much anymore, and just spends time with her boyfriend.”

Leonie has been left with a number of medical problems including diabetes insipidus, after her pituitary gland was damaged when she fractured her skull.

She also had problems hearing up until a few months ago, due to brain fluid seaping into her ears, and neck pain as two of the bones in her spine were crushed.

However she has progressed more than doctors expected, as they never thought she would make such a quick recovery.

Although she says the constant hospital appointments, scans and tests have taken their toll.

The teenager said: “I am fed up with going to hospital appointments two or three times a week.

“I am also finding school quite difficult because I missed a lot when I was in hospital.”

Leonie is now looking forward to a spa day at Centre Parcs for her 16th birthday on December 17 and her boyfriend Kieran Connors, 18, of Westrop is looking into buying a balloon flight.

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