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WORKING TOGETHER: Brain injury victim Sue Carlyle with consultant clinical psychologist Dr Nick Moffat

LIFE for a brain injured crash victim who cannot even bear to hear sirens or see flashing blue lights is improving one day at a time.

It has been more than six years since the day that Sue Carlyle was trapped in her car after three horses caused an unavoidable collision on the A27 which left Sue trapped in the car until firefighters cut her free.

The horses had bolted from their owners while being transferred from a field to a stable and ended up galloping along the hard shoulder and causing the car crash.

Sue, 55, was only given 48 hours to live by hospital staff and she was in a coma for ten days while her husband Alan, 60, and her two sons Simon and James waited and prayed for her recovery.

Sue said: "I now believe that when someone is in a coma they can hear everything, because when my son stood at my bedside he told me he loved me and I squeezed his hand - so I must have heard it."

Now living at her home in Pipit Close, Weymouth, Sue deals every day with the constant struggle of being brain damaged, which has caused her to lose the majority of her short-term memory.

As well as those conditions she also suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which affects her confidence and ability to deal with the accident. Sue cannot bring herself to say the word horse' or bear to see blue flashing lights or sirens because this can reduce her to an extremely distressed state that can last up to 48 hours.

She is also deaf in her left ear, has no sense of taste and smell and has constant headaches, imbalance and a ringing sensation in her ears.

She said: "I remember when I was told I had brain damage I was so confused and found it so difficult to process. I was so frightened at the beginning because I didn't know anything about brain injury and I didn't know anyone who had experienced it.

"At one point I thought that I might just pop off in my sleep."

She added: "I feel like I have gone from being a wife to being the child of the family.

"Sometimes I feel like I am in limbo between here and another world."

Doctor Nick Moffat, a consultant clinical psychologist for Dorset Healthcare Foundation Trust, has been supervising Sue's care for the last four years and said she is a remarkable example of the difference having a positive attitude can make.

Alan is now his wife's full-time carer after he gave up his job in 2003 because his she needed around-the-clock care.

For Alan and Sue their lives have changed considerably but their relationship is still very strong and supportive.

Sue said: "There were two of us in that car and it could have easily been Alan that was trapped and not me and I think to myself that I am glad this happened to me and not Alan - I couldn't bear it to have happened to him."

Her life is now returning to normality one step at a time and Sue said she is just getting on with things' and pushing herself to confront issues. She even conquered her main fear and sat on a horse four years ago.

Although Sue has had to leave her electronics job in the past, she has managed to rekindle her passion for cross-stitching and knitting as well as attending regular classes at the Headway Centre in Dorchester.

9:15am Friday 28th March 2008

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