Driven Chapter 4: Holly Scott’s long road to recovery

A near-fatal car accident made rituals as simple as getting out of bed and make breakfast difficult for Holly Scott. But the 22-year-old has been facing her daily challenges head on.

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Holly Scott had to learn how to walk, jump, drive and count all over again after nearly losing her life in a crash in 2017.

The 22-year-old driver spent two weeks in an induced coma and woke to screws drilled into her hip and thighs to fix her fractures.

The road to recovery was difficult, long and painful but Ms Scott was driven by her goal to be independent.

She tells The Advertiser of her daily challenges in a seven-part video series, Driven , published online this week in partnership with SA Police and Lifetime Support Authority.

“What made me not give up was, I didn’t want to be the way I was any more,” she said.

Holly Scott overcomes daily struggles to learn how to get back on her feet again with the help of a team of health experts including exercise physiologist Stephen Bateman. Picture: Tom Huntley

Holly Scott and exercise physiologist Stephen Bateman. Tom Huntley

“I remember writing a lot of notes on my phone after my accident … I remember writing about how scared I was to get off my two walking sticks, then my one walking stick, and then finally learning to walk again.

“I remember finally being able to walk again without walking sticks. I remember happy crying walking into one of my appointments.

“I don’t think I’ve ever happy cried before in my life.”

The crash in the Adelaide Hills left her with fractures in her legs, pelvis and spine and a contusion on her liver.

During the first weeks at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, even walking on crutches was a dream.

Ms Scott had post traumatic amnesia, which is a period after brain injury when a patient is disoriented and cannot form day-to-day memories.

Holly Scott sustained critical injuries from her crash in 2017. Picture: Holly Scott

Central Adelaide Local Health Network rehabilitation director Dr Maria Paul said people in a post traumatic amnesia state have difficulty forming new memories.

“If we teach them a strategy in physiotherapy or occupational therapy, the next day you could be starting from scratch because they’ve forgotten,” she said.

Ms Scott also had brain bleeds on the right side of her head and diffused axonal injury, where there is disruption at a microscopic level of neuronal connections.

“So this just means that information is not readily transferred from brain to the rest of the body and also any sensory information that she gets takes longer to process,” Dr Paul said.

Ms Scott undertook a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program in the hope of going home and being able to walk around the house.

Her team included an occupational therapist, physiotherapist, speech pathologist, psychologist and exercise physiologist from Hampstead, myPhysioSA and Brain Injury SA, working together to get back on her feet.

“I felt like giving up when it got too hard. And I’m not a patient person. I had to learn patience,” Ms Scott said. “I remember writing I never wanted to take it for granted again.”