Offshoreonly.com - Sarah Donohue

From The Sun: BEAUTY'S AMAZING
RECOVERY
The stunt star "died" for a few minutes after a horrific high-speed powerboat
crash. She suffered a frightening catalogue of injuries, including a smashed jaw,
broken bones and severed nerves. Sarah was revived after a dramatic
underwater rescue, but doctors predicted she had suffered severe brain damage.
However, surgeons not only revived her but rebuilt and restored her model-girl
looks. Sarah, 30, says: "I never thought I'd make a full recovery. "But I'm not just
back to normal. I look the same now as when I was 17!" Ironically, Sarah had
earlier been hired as a powerboat stunt girl for the 1999 James bond movie The
World Is Not Enough. The danger she endured then was nothing compared with
what she went through in real life later that year. Sarah, of Saddleworth, Lancs,
was racing across the Venice Lagoon in northern Italy when her £40,000
powerboat spun out of control at 80mph. She says: "I will never forget the craft
digging deep into the water and flipping over. "I remember realising we were
turning over and thought, 'here we go'. It was like being hit by concrete. "My
helmet came clean off and I was trapped underwater behind the steering wheel."
Her racing partner Enrico Buccero fought in vain to free her. Other drivers arrived
and together they righted the powerboat, getting Sarah's head back above water.
Sarah says: "I had no pulse or heartbeat - not that I remember any of it. I'm told
people were screaming that I was dead and there was nothing anyone could do
for me." Fellow racer Guiseppe Bevilacqua refused to give up, pumping her heart
until paramedics arrived. Sarah woke up in intensive care two days later. Doctors
feared she must have suffered brain damage. She hadn't - though her jaw was
broken in two places, facial nerves were severed, 12 teeth were broken and she
had cuts to her scalp. Sarah also suffered a broken shoulder, wrist and two ribs.
Her lungs were full of salt water after her ordeal. They had to be drained off while
she was on a life-support machine. Sarah still has no feeling in much of her face.
She cannot bite and is on strong painkillers. Sarah jokes: "The only things that
remained unscathed were my lovely fingernails. I was covered in lacerations from
top to toe, a bone was sticking through my arm and I am left with limited
movement because my shoulder was broken and dislocated. "The worst damage
was to my face. Apart from no feeling to the right side, my top and lower jaw did
not match up." Titanium plates were fitted to clamp her jaw together but these had
to be removed then complications happened. Sarah's teeth were then wired
together but her jaw failed to fuse. Finally the wires were removed and her jaw
strapped shut with elastic, forcing Sarah to go on a liquid diet for six weeks. "I
couldn't talk and could eat only through a straw. "My whole top set of teeth are
new crowns but my bottom set can't be done until my jaw is properly realigned."
Dentistry on her top teeth alone has cost £3,000 with a similar sum expected for
the bottom teeth. "I'm still in a lot of pain," Sarah says. Despite her injuries, Sarah
still managed to return to her great love, powerboat racing, six months after the
crash. And she came back a winner. Last month, less than two years after her
"death", Sarah and new co-pilot Guiseppe - the man who got her heart going
again - won a heat of the Italian Championships off Naples in southern Italy. To
underline how dangerous her favourite sport is, Sarah's crash co-pilot, Enrico,
was taken to hospital last month after another horrific accident, off Pisa. He
suffered 80 per cent burns from the waist down and is now recovering at home in
Rome. Sarah now has another love, Paul Laidler, 24, a sub-lieutenant on the
aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. She says: "We met at a birthday bash for me in
Southampton a year ago. "He was in Italy to see me win in July. Afterwards he
watched me jet-skiing when I flipped over and broke my wrist." Paul says: "I'm
confident she's a good driver but it worries me sometimes to see her racing at
high speeds. "I wonder what she'll come back with broken next." Sarah has used
her restored good looks to front extreme-sport shows on cable TV including
Granada Men & Motors. Sarah says: "People might say I'm a risk-taker because I
love taking it to the edge. But I don't have a death wish - I love my family too
much."