A Derry teenager who suffered a broken jaw after being hit by debris from a burning car has said she is thankful to be alive.
Molly (19), who did not wish to use her surname, was injured last Monday after the car was set alight in the Galliagh area.
Her jaw was broken in two places and required surgery to have two plates inserted.
It had followed disorder in the area after material had been removed from a bonfire site.
Speaking to the BBC, she said: “I heard a bang, I just kind of ducked whenever it hit me and then I felt my left jaw had locked.
“I had never felt that feeling before. I put my hand on my jaw…I felt my skin was obviously broke, it had pierced through me and my hands were covered in blood.”
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She said after the shock the initial feeling had been embarrassment.
“Everybody I knew was there…so I literally tried to lift my hood up and walk up to my car.”
She thanked another girl who stayed with her until her father was able to take her to hospital for treatment.
Asked if she realised what had happened at the time, she said: “I didn’t even feel any pain from it until I was coming over the new bridge and said to my daddy ‘my adrenaline’s starting to wear off a bit’.
“I didn’t want to admit to myself that my jaw was broke, so I was just telling myself ‘there’s a wee hole in my face but I’ll be fixed up.’
“I could feel my skin had been opened up, my bite was off and…the swelling started instantly after it happened.”
On first ringing her parents, she said: “I was all ‘daddy, don’t kill me there’s a hole in my face’.
She continued: “Whenever I got (home) they could see how serious it actually because you could see the look on my mummy’s face.
“She went into panic mode and then my poor daddy, my heart was broke for him because obviously he hadn’t realised when I’d rang him how bad it actually was.”
As well as the metal plates, Molly has now been left with a scar on the side of her cheek.
Thanking the surgeons who treated her, she has kept a positive attitude about her injuries.
“I don’t mind about going out in public, it’s not really phasing me. If people are going to look, they’re going to look,” she said.
“You can’t really stop people…I didn’t think that the scarring would have bothered me because I got very lucky with it.
“I’m just trying not to complain or be sad about it because…I could have lost my life and that was obviously a lot more serious than having a scar on my face.
“Even though they’ve put my jaw back into place, it’s never going to be my original face again.”
