Aussie knocked off bike in Bali says she ‘wanted to run away’

AN Aussie left with horrific injuries after coming off a bike in a Bali hit and run “wanted to run away” after seeing herself.

AN Australian who suffered horrific injuries when she was flung from a scooter in a Bali hit and run says she “wanted to run away” after taking a selfie from her hospital bed to see herself.

Victoria ‘Tori’ Van de Stadt, 26, has spoken for the first time after the traumatising accident in December, when a speeding car knocked her from the bike her boyfriend Louis Macindoe was driving.

She slammed into a tree and was left for dead, lying for hours in a ditch until three men from the UK found the couple.

Ms Van de Stadt suffered spinal injuries, lacerations injuries to her bottom jaw and head and extensive damage to her eye socket, cheekbone and nose. The young woman was evacuated to a hospital in Perth, where she was in a medically induced coma for eight days and had two major surgeries, one to fuse her spine and another to rebuild her broken face.

The first thing Ms Van de Stadt did when she regained consciousness in hospital was take a selfie to see her horrific injuries.

Her mother Tracy Priestley spoke of her agony during the wait to see if her daughter would survive.

The couple had been heading for dinner in Canggu, North Kuta, on a rented scooter when they were knocked over. Speaking for the first time on A Current Affair tonight, Ms Van de Stadt said she doesn’t remember much from when she woke up in hospital. “I was pretty out of it,” she said. “I don’t really remember. I think I just kind of shut it out. I didn’t want to deal with it.

“I didn’t want to move back to Newcastle, I wanted to run away. I was happy to stay in Perth. I was afraid I’d never go back to normal.”

Her mother Tracey Priestley heard about the accident via the late-night phone call every parent dreads. “Is she OK?” she asked the Balinese caller. “Tell me she is OK.”

But no one could tell her much. “I hung up and just started hyperventilating,” she said.

Ms Priestley and Ms Van de Stadt’s brothers Luke and Daniel headed for Bali and knew they had to get to Perth. They faced an agonising wait as she lay sedated in hospital after a 13-hour marathon surgery to fix her shattered head, which could have left her paralysed.

“We thought we were going to lose her,” Ms Priestley told the Channel 9 program.

Ms Priestley said Daniel correctly predicted his sister would want to take a selfie to see her face as soon as she woke up, but she has no recollection of doing so.

The Aussie mum told news.com.au at the time she was terrified about what her daughter’s reaction would be when she woke up. “I expect for her to be freaking out I guess; I’ve just got no idea how to prepare,” she said. “I feel like it will just be incredibly confronting for her.”

She’s proud of how her daughter has coped, describing her as the type of person who “doesn’t let anyone stand in her way” and “gets on with things”.

The 26-year-old’s boyfriend Louis Macindoe was wracked with guilt after the hit and run. Picture: Instagram

Ms Van de Stadt and Mr Macindoe said they didn’t know how to thank the three men who rescued them enough.

The young Newcastle woman, pictured with her mum before the accident, said she just wanted to run away after her face was crushed. Picture: Instagram

Ms Van de Stadt said her 26-year-old boyfriend, a licensed motorbike rider who was left with a fractured skull and a deep gash, was wracked with guilt after the accident.

“He definitely feels guilty,” she said. “It upsets him a lot, it’s been really hard.”

Asked why by presenter Tracy Grimshaw, she replied: “Because I was hurt more than him I think. He says he wishes it was him who was hurt more. He finds it hard to deal with.

“It’s obviously not his fault, nobody thinks that and I’m going to be fine.”

After he was operated on for his head injuries, Mr Macindoe shared an emotional post on Instagram reading: “I’m sending cosmic healing vibes and loving energies across to Perth for my love.”

Ms Van de Stadt, who was 25 at the time of the accident, was discharged from hospital three weeks after the accident with her jaw wired shut and was only able to eat blended food through a syringe.

After seven weeks in Perth, she was reunited with her family, who helped raise $100,000 for her treatment because she had no insurance. The young woman is due to have further surgeries on her nose and her mouth at John Hunter Hospital back home in Newcastle.

“I feel like I feel better, that I look good, because everyone else says so,” she said. “I don’t feel myself, but I’m starting to, yeah,

Ms Van de Stadt, who has had a temporary front tooth fitted since the show, warned other young Australians on holiday to “wear a helmet”, adding that the ones you get with rentals often don’t offer enough protection.

Ms Van de Stadt and Mr Macindoe lay for hours in a ditch in Canggu, North Kuta. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

The scene of the hit and run on the young Aussie couple. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

The couple’s rescuers initially thought Mr Macindoe was dead. Paul Rosser, from Wales, saw the injured couple as he passed by with his friend Johnny Donaldson and his mate’s nephew Drew.

“I could see four or five locals standing on the side of the road, just looking into bushes and trees,” Mr Rosser told ACA. “Then I saw the motorbike. So I said to the guys, ‘I’m going to have a look.’

“Tori was lying here really choking. She was gagging, there was blood everywhere. I had to clear airwaves. I pulled out a load of flesh, teeth and a big clot of blood. She started bleeding better.

“Drew and Johnny shouted over, ‘We found a boy.’ At first they actually thought he was dead.”

Mr Rosser and his friends waited with the couple for at least two-and-a-half hours until the ambulance came. Mr Macindoe was caught upside down in a tree and Ms Van de Stadt was “in a dire situation”, he said.

He told the young woman over video link: “I actually thought I lost you. You went extremely quiet. I was shouting at you, ‘Come on, girl, you’re not gonna leave me. Hold in there. You can do it. Don’t give up.’

“I remember it vividly. And then all of a sudden it was like another sort of life just came to you and you were trying to stand up ... I had to hold you down. you were fighting.”

Ms Van de Stadt and Mr Macindoe told Mr Rosser they couldn’t thank him enough. Ms Priestley said the nightmare had made her even more protective of her children.

“I think it’s brought our family close,” she said. “We have always been really there for each other but now it is just that step further. We always say, ‘I love you’ now.”