Julie Walker on the road to recovery

DYING was the one word Julie Walker couldn't quite bring her self to say as she lay in her hospital bed.

Picture: submitted

DYING was the one word Julie Walker couldn't quite bring her self to say as she lay in her hospital bed nursing multiple major injuries from an horrific car accident.

But the Gympie Regional Councillor knows how lucky she was to have survived the head on crash that left her council car a crumpled wreck on the side of the Mary Valley Road 18 days ago.

Cr Walker spoke to The Gympie Times via mobile phone yesterday after taking her first painful steps toward rehabilitation after the smash.

“I'm a lucky girl, I was so close to...”, she said before pausing to say.

“I was only a sneeze away from being on the other side of the dirt.”

The 48 year old said she still had a long way to go before making a full recovery from the traffic accident on February 2

Cr Walker's body took the full force of the impact when a four wheel drive (4WD) and her Hyundai i30 hatchback collided.

She was trapped in the car for nearly half an hour before being released, stabilised and choppered to the Royal Brisbane hospital for emergency treatment.

She has been there ever since.

Doctors and nursing staff have been working around the clock attending to her multiple injuries, which include two fractured vertebrae in her neck, one in her back, a broken collarbone, four broken ribs, an arm broken in three places, a fractured leg and internal injuries.

One life threatening injury was a damaged vein near her spinal cord in her neck.

“I have to keep my neck perfectly straight,” Cr Walker said

“I will be in a collar for at least another three months and I'm taking drugs to thin my blood so it doesn't clot.”

“And I'm still pulling small pieces of glass out of my face,” she said.

Cr Walker said despite being conscious while Fire and Rescue officers were cutting her from her vehicle, she couldn't remember any of the events during or after the crash.

“The last thing I remember was a green car with a pale roof.

“I can't even remember my week in intensive care,” she said.

After enduring operations to fix internal injuries caused by seatbelts, repair knees and elbows and some plastic surgery above her eye, Cr Walker will again go under the knife on Tuesday to have a pin inserted in her broken arm and is scheduled to have another procedure on her collar bone in the future.

“I'm stuck in bed all of the time.

“I try to keep a smile on my face, but it gets a bit difficult at times,” she said.

Although keeping positive while enduring pain and boredom has been hard, Cr Walker said the support from the Gympie community had been humbling.

“I am just so thrilled and honoured to be part of this region.

“People have been thoughtful, Gympie has rallied behind me.

“The amount of cards and flowers has been overwhelming.

The councillor said she would like to thank everyone who helped her survive the crash at the scene and in the Royal Brisbane hospital.

“I thank everyone for helping me through this time,” she said

Cr Walker also thanked her fellow councillors for investing in cars with extra safety features including airbags and side intrusion bars.

“If I wasn't in that car I would be dead.

“The safety features saved me.

“I am a lucky, lucky person,” she said

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Originally published as Julie Walker on the road to recovery