A WELLINGTON Point woman who suffered horrific injuries in a car crash two years ago is calling for better education and monitoring of drivers with potentially dangerous medical conditions.
Sharon Whitchurch, 42, was driving to work along Mount Cotton Road at Burbank in March 2006 when her Toyota Echo collided head-on with a car driven by a man having a hypoglycaemic seizure.
The diabetic man was charged with dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm, but prosecutors dropped the charge because of his medical condition.
He was uninjured but Sharon suffered multiple fractures, numerous internal injuries and severe blood loss.
She spent six weeks in a coma in the Princess Alexandra Hospital where she was given a one per cent chance of survival.
The single mother of three has since undergone reconstruction surgery on her face, stomach and legs, including an operation last week, and is now pursuing civil action against the driver.
“I’m in constant pain every day, I still take morphine tablets to get through the day,” Sharon said.
“I have a leg that’s shorter by 4.8cm. I only have a quarter of a liver, no gall bladder and no appendix.”
Sharon said while she bore the physical scars, her family – particularly her children aged 17, 16 and 12 at the time of the crash – were emotionally traumatised.
“It’s hard to come out of the coma and know your kids had to say goodbye to you so many times,” she said.
Sharon is calling for better education of drivers with a medical condition and tougher legislation for those involved in car crashes.
She would like to expand Jet’s Law – which requires drivers to report medical conditions to Queensland Transport – to make it compulsory for all new drivers to be issued with a doctor’s certificate saying whether or not they have a medical condition that could affect their driving.
If they do, Sharon wants drivers to complete two defensive driving lessons and an education program that teaches them about driving with a medical condition.
“I want to educate people on what can happen to them on the roads if they don’t monitor their sugar levels and take heed of warning signs (that their blood sugar is too low or high),” she said.
Sharon would also like diabetics who have seizures on the road to have their licences suspended as people with epilepsy do.
“I don’t want to take all diabetics off the road; I have a lot of friends who are diabetics. I just want them treated the same as others,” she said.
Sharon is now speaking of her experience at monthly attitudinal driving workshops to help make all drivers aware of the effects of their actions on the road.
“It can happen to you. It happened to me at 8.30 in the morning on my way to work,” she said. “You don’t know when you life is going to turn upside down.”
