Warning: Graphic Content
A Russian beauty queen has said she is ‘disgusted to look at herself’ after suffering horrific injuries in a car crash.
Evgenia Smetanina, who was runner-up in the Beauty of Russia pageant in 2017, was left with head, face and lung wounds as a result of the incident, as well as injuries to both collarbones, arm fractures and a broken leg.
She also suffered spinal injuries she fears will affect her ability to walk again.
Evgenia was in a Ford Transit van in the Borisov district of Belarus when the 20-year-old who was driving ‘fell asleep at the wheel’ and collided with a truck, according to reports.
The 30-year-old woman said she was travelling from Moscow to Minsk at the time to visit her sister, who had undergone spinal surgery.
In the aftermath of the accident, Evgenia reportedly suffered ‘clinical death’, the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, however her life was saved when she was taken to intensive care.
Recalling the incident, Evgenia said:
The head-on collision with a truck was the last thing I saw – death was quick, I was only hurting for 15 seconds.
Then unknown people got my body out of the mangled vehicle. They (also) thought I was already dead. I lay on the ground for about 40 minutes.
It was a long time before I came to my senses.
The driver, who Evgenia described as a ‘failed killer’, only suffered minor injuries in the accident and he has since visited the injured woman in hospital.
Evgenia implied the driver had been driving recklessly throughout the journey, as she said she ‘screamed’ several times as he overtook other vehicles on the road.
She described her condition as ‘bad’, adding:
There is a tube in my lung, my whole body is broken.
Evgenia also shared images of herself after the accident but said she is now ‘disgusted’ to look at herself.
In one picture posted from hospital, she wrote: ‘I’m in trouble’, while in another she waved at the camera and said ‘scary isn’t it, and unpleasant’.
She added, ‘I am disgusted to look at myself’ and claimed she is ‘doomed to a wheelchair’.
Evgenia has recently undergone two major surgeries in a Minsk hospital but she still has more operations to come.
Hopefully Evgenia will make a full recovery.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.