American nurse’s face shattered in moped crash in Krabi, Thailand
An American woman has become the latest in a long line of road victims after a horrific moped crash while on holiday in Thailand. The crash has left the Massachusetts ICU nurse with severe facial injuries
Sierra Fairhurst was enjoying a trip with friends in March when the accident happened. One moment, she was riding a rented moped, then everything went black, she said.
“We were on the road, and then we weren’t.”
The 24 year old has no memory of the crash but woke up in a small hospital in Krabi with devastating injuries, reported the Boston 25.
“My eye socket is broken, I almost lost my eye, my cheekbones and nose were broken, so that’s all metal now.”
According to a GoFundMe page set up for her, she suffered a brain bleed, multiple fractures, and lost several teeth.
Fairhurst was rushed to a local hospital, but conditions there were far from ideal. Her mother, Zoe Rose, and brother flew across the world to be by her side, only to be met with shocking conditions.
“There were pigeons walking around our room,” Rose said.
“Physically, you can see that her nose is over to the side; physically, she doesn’t have any teeth; her chin was kind of removed, but it’s now back on, and her eyelid was gone, but that’s now on.”
To make matters worse, in the chaos following the crash, Fairhurst’s passport and identification went missing. Without them, she couldn’t be transferred to a better hospital in Bangkok for urgent facial surgery, said Rose.
“In the confusion of the accident and her friends packing luggage to transfer with her, all of Sierra’s identification was lost.”
After days of uncertainty, the US Embassy secured her a new passport, and she was finally flown to Bangkok for emergency surgeries. She returned to the US on March 27.
As soon as she landed at Boston Logan International Airport, she was taken to the hospital and cleared from inpatient treatment. Since then, she has been attending medical appointments with a neurologist, an ocular plastic surgeon, an orthopedic specialist, and a cosmetic dentist.
“I talk with a lisp now, and people often ask me to repeat myself,” Fairhurst said. “I’d love to heal quickly and get back to work, see my coworkers and friends, and take care of my patients. But I know I need to be able to pour from a full cup, and if my cup isn’t full, I can’t help anybody else.”
Her mother is simply grateful she made it home alive.
“I know she’s very self-conscious about the scarring on her face and her missing teeth. But she still came out of this alive. Her brain is healing. She’s still beautiful.”
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