A woman suffered life-changing injuries after running herself over by forgetting to use her handbrake. Kim Kynaston, a former youth justice officer, stopped her car on her cousin’s driveway in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, to deliver a birthday card in March 2021.
When the 59-year-old saw her automatic Ford Kuga going back down the driveway, the good deed turned into a strange disaster. She went into ‘fight or flight’ mode and sprinted after the car, trying to jump in and stop it from rolling.
Kim was able to get one leg into the car, but she mistakenly pressed the accelerator pedal, causing her torso to be pushed into the car door. The impact crushed her pelvis, separated her groin and bladder, and caused her bowels to hang out of her body. “I’d pulled up on the drive which is on a slight incline. I got out and the car started rolling back. We think I left it in reverse instead of park,” Kim recalled.
“It was fight or flight so I went after it. The police said the handbrake was off, which totally surprised me. I have to admit that it was my fault, according to Thesun. “I reached in to try and stop it but I didn’t make it. I was half in, half out and I put my foot on the accelerator and the door split me in half. My legs were forced apart and my pelvis was crushed.
“The force of the door went through the groin, it split my vaginal area, my bladder and my bowels were out.”
Kim, a mother of three and grandma, claims she also hit the horn, alerting an off-duty police officer who lived on the same street, whom she later referred to as a “hero.”
As Kim was dying, the officer requested a defibrillator, which eventually saved her life. She was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where she had to rush into emergency surgery and remained in an induced coma for four weeks.
“I had a severed vein in my left leg, the door had cut right the way through my skin,” she said. “They were going to get the defibrillator because I was dying. The last thing I remember is seeing the car and jumping back in it then I woke up four weeks later.”
Kim, who has three grandchildren, had surgery to remove a section of her bowel, stabilize her pelvis, repair a damaged nerve, and restore her bladder. She spent 12 weeks in the hospital recovering from her “life-changing” injuries.
“They fought to put me back together, I had numerous surgeries, I had all manner of things to save my life,” she said of the ordeal. “I still have a bone missing in my pelvis. I was bleeding inside, I had transfusions. I was in an awful lot of pain, I suffered from delirium.
“They were life-changing injuries, there’s no two ways about it. Kim has gone from being a confident driver to ‘very apprehensive,’ and she now gets panic episodes that can be triggered by the sound of a vehicle horn.
She is still alive, thankfully, although she is on crutches and requires a powered scooter and wheelchair. She also claims that her memory is ‘gone’. In the past, Kim said she would not have tried to get in and stop cars. Kim said: “It needs to be out there that you shouldn’t get back in your bloody car. If I did any sort of risk assessment, I would have left it.”