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Stephanie Inglis: Judo star given one per cent chance of survival after motorcycle accident wakes up from coma

'This is incredible, a girl who was written off for dead three weeks ago has now been given hope,' friend says

Olivia Blair
Wednesday 08 June 2016 09:15 BST
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Stephanie Inglis was in Vietnam teaching English
Stephanie Inglis was in Vietnam teaching English

Stephanie Inglis, the commonwealth games Judo silver medallist who was left “fighting for her life” after a motorcycle accident, has woken up from a coma.

Inglis, 17, sustained serious head injuries when she fell off the back of a motorcycle which was taking her to work at a school in Vietnam on May 12. She was taken to hospital in Hanoi where doctors initially gave her a one per cent chance of survival.

While in hospital, she suffered from pneumonia, multiple abscesses in her head and other infections in her body. She has since been transferred to a hospital in Bangkok, where she has started to come out of the medically induced coma.

The Facebook page SaveSteph which has been liked over 6,000 times provided an update of Inglis’ condition which revealed she has now woken up from the coma and even held her father Robert’s hand.

“Today has been filled with emotion for Stephanie, her parents and family,” the post said. “Upon arrival at the hospital this morning they found Stephanie with her left eye fully open and watching what was going on, when she saw Robert and Alison [her mother] she started to move her face. Alison asked her: ‘Stephanie, if you can hear us and know we are here, blink’ and she did.

“[…] The implications of this seem to suggest not only will Steph make it she will recover to the beautiful, talented and inspiring woman she has grown into, she does have the strength to fight this, her doctors believe there is no reason this can’t happen.”

When Inglis, who is from Inverness, was first hospitalised a GoFundMe page was launched by her friend and fellow judo athlete Khalid Gehlan to help pay for medical bills as her travel insurance had run out. The page has so far raised over £290,000.

Writing on the page on Thursday, Gehlan said of Inglis’ recent recovery signs: “This is incredible, a girl who was written off for dead three weeks ago has now been given hope, her doctors are starting to whisper that there’s potential for a full recovery. Her parents are still scared to hope too much and Stephanie still has a huge journey ahead of her, but she still has a chance at life and every day that chance improves.”

Inglis won silver for Scotland in the women’s 57kg event at the Glasgow Commonwealth games in 2014.

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