Dad of Irish woman knocked down in Italy while training for Dublin marathon provides update from hospital
The father of Hannah Leonard has revealed that 'there are little signs that she’s on her way back to us'
An Irish woman in a coma for a month since she was knocked down in Italy while training for the Dublin Marathon could be showing “signs that she’s on her way back”, according to her dad.
Hannah Leonard, 22, from Bray in Wicklow, remains in critical care in hospital with “devastating brain injuries” due to an October 6 collision in Sicily. But the law student’s father, Kevin, has revealed that Hannah has started showing the first signs of recovery since being struck by a car while preparing for the recent Dublin marathon.
The worried dad said: “We are still in shock and trying to come to terms with everything. Hannah had been living in Sicily since May and working in a hotel. She had decided in January that she was going to run the Dublin marathon. She would go out for a run after work. She was on her last long run, around 35kms, when she got hit by a car with an 18-year-old driver.
“She was sent about five metres in the air. The driver did stop. Hannah suffered a severe head injury and had what the surgeon described as life-saving surgery. If it didn’t work, she wasn’t going to make it. She is still in a coma. At some point, we’d like to move her home, but at the moment, she’s not in a state to move."
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Kevin said: “We are waiting to see when the next surgery is. They keep telling us that she is very bad. There are a couple more surgeries that they need to do.”
He added: “Every day, we see something little with her. Myself, my wife, and Hannah’s boyfriend Cathal visit her every evening. We’re only allowed an hour a day. We talk to her and play messages to her from her friends. Her mouth moves a little bit and her body moves a little.
“We’re hopeful that this is Hannah responding to us, but the doctors can’t say for definite. Every day, we see something a little bit different. Last week, she was yawning and we are taking that as a sign that she is on her way back to us.”
Loved ones believe Hannah was sent “flying approximately 15 feet across the road” following the collision and landed on her head. She underwent three hours of “life-saving neurosurgery” and had a large piece of her skull removed so doctors could access her brain and relieve the pressure.
A GoFundMe page has been launched for Hannah, who was due to graduate with a degree in Law from DCU last month, while her dad Kevin revealed to Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 on Monday that the family now want to get Hannah home.
He said: “We do want to get her home, but we don’t know if she had travel insurance because we don’t have access to her laptop or phone. We have to assume she doesn’t, so we have to organise all that ourselves. Beaumont Hospital in Dublin is willing to take her.
“We have to source an air ambulance ourselves and, then, after they have done the next two surgeries and she is infection-free, we would hope to get her home, but getting a timeframe for that is very difficult. The next surgery is to replace a piece of skull that was removed and then she needs to be infection-free for a couple of weeks. Costs are going to be very expensive."
Hannah was to run in the Dublin marathon 10 years after dad Kevin completed it, both dedicating it to Hannah’s grandmother, Caroline. Dad Kevin, mum Vanessa, brother Dylan, sister Lily and boyfriend Cathal have been at her bedside in Sicily. Over €150,000 has been raised so far on the family’s Support Hannah Leonard page on GoFundMe towards her medical treatment.
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