Aletia Davies spent four months in coma
Dailymail
Caroline Garner For Mailonline
September 16,2015
Car crash victim who was told she would NEVER walk or talk again fulfills dream of becoming a model... despite broken jaw, a brain injury and four operations on her face
- Aletia Davies, 20, was in a coma for four months after her accident
- Her injuries threatened her ability to walk and talk, and left nasty scars
- The Hereford beauty has proved doctors wrong, and is now a model
A woman who was was told by medics she would never walk or talk again after a horror car crash has defied the odds to become a model.
Aletia Davies, now 20, spent four months in a coma after the vehicle she was a passenger in smashed into a tree at high speed.
The then 16-year-old from Hereford suffered a brain injury, was partially blinded in both eyes and lost her hearing in one ear following the accident in October 2011.
Aletia Davies has five metal plates in place of her jaw bone after it snapped in two in a car crash
The 20-year-old has defied the odds by learning to walk and talk again after her accident - now she's a model
Despite doctors warning that she would never walk or talk again as a result of her injuries, this week Aletia - who has made a remarkable recovery - signed for a top modelling agency.
The former hairdresser said: 'I didn't think I'd be able to follow my dream to be a model because of everything that had happened, but I proved the doctors wrong. I am very determined.'
She underwent four major operations on her face and shoulder and surgeons used old photographs of her to rebuild her shattered features.
Aletia before the accident - she was 16 when the car she was a passenger in spun off the road and crashed into a tree
Despite needing 200 stitches inside her mouth, she only had one stitch in her face.
The teen was left with a brain injury, partially blind in both eyes, and she lost her hearing in one ear following the crash on October 26, 2011
Aletia pictured with the air ambulance crew who came to her rescue after the crash in Llandrindod, Powys
She said: 'My face has been reconstructed, I haven't got a lower jaw, but I've got five metal plates. 'I've got a scar on my shoulder having broken my collar bone, but even with scars I've got a modelling contract - I am over the moon.'
'I'm going to keep going, I haven't really got a choice, and I am getting there. I'm good at making people laugh, and if anything my humour has become wickeder.'
Aletia was being given a lift home from her job as a trainee hairdresser in Llandrindod, Powys, Wales, when the car she was in spun off the road and crashed.
The teenager was airlifted by RAF Sea King helicopter to Cardiff University Hospital with horrendous injuries.
Aletia's mother Janet, 51, sat at her daughter's bedside every night for the entire nine months Aletia was in hospital.
The beautiful Aletia has been signed to Bristol-based Talent Management modelling agency
Aletia with her mum, Janet, who was at Aletia's hospital bed every day for nine months and is now writing a book about her experience
She is now writing a book based on her diary entries about her daughter's remarkable recovery.
Janet said: 'I watched her going through every mother's nightmare.
'When I first saw Aletia [after the crash] a doctor told me she would probably not survive the night. I was devastated but never gave up hope.
'She was put in a coma for four months while doctors battled to save her.
'She literally had thousands of bleeds to her brain and doctors told me that if she did recover she would never walk or talk again.
'But one morning I gave her a cuddle when she was unconscious and she whispered in my ear 'mum'. I was overjoyed, and a month later she regained consciousness.
'Doctors said she would never walk or talk again, but she has proved them all wrong.'
Aletia remained in intensive care for another five months before finally being allowed to return home in May 2012.
The pretty 20-year-old has scars, but this hasn't stopped her from fulfilling her dream to be a model
Aletia says she has always dreamed of becoming a model and her contract with a top agency has given her 'a new lease of life'
Janet, who has three other grown-up children and lives with partner Joe, 42, became Aletia's full-time carer and helped her daughter learn how to walk again.
She said: 'Aletia needed a lot of help, especially with her speech and walking. She is brain damaged and needs to carry a card with her telling people she has a traumatic brain damage because when she talks she sounds drunk.
'She never lost her ambition to become a model and six months ago we took some pictures of her and sent them off to a number of modelling agencies.
'We didn't really expect anything to come of it but suddenly we got a call last week offering a contract.
'She hasn't stopped smiling for over a week. She won't be able to walk on high heels but it has given her a new lease of life.'