A model who was left with a ‘massive hole’ in her head after falling down the stairs has head her skull rebuilt with a 3D printer.
Francesca Burr was left with five separate skull fractures, a broken nose and a cracked jaw after suffering a horror fall at her mother’s home.
Then aged 27, she was found at the foot of the stairwell with blood coming out of her ‘eyes, nose and ears’ having experienced a violent seizure while walking downstairs.
Ten months later, and after three operations in which surgeons painstakingly removed tiny bone fragments from her brain, Francesca says she has gone from ‘Frankenstein to Robogirl’.
Francesca Burr was left with five separate skull fractures, a broken nose and a cracked jaw after suffering a horror fall at her mother’s home
Ms Burr finally had a titanium plate fixed to her skull in February with the help of a 3D printer; technology which the model described as ‘some real James Bond s***’
Ms Burr has had three operations, in which surgeons painstakingly removed tiny bone fragments from her brain (pictured right, an X-ray shows the extent of the damage)
However the road to recovery proved difficult for the 28-year-old, who when woken from her coma did not recognise her boyfriend or remember her parents’ divorce.
She told The Mirror: ‘I couldn’t remember my middle name and when they told me it was Chelsea I remember thinking, “What? Mum would never let dad do that”.
‘At one point I also confided in my younger brother, who is also like my best friend, that I’d seen mum kissing a man who wasn’t dad.
‘But my parents divorced when I was 10 and she’s been married to my stepdad for seven or eight years. He was even the one who found me.’
Ms Burr was discovered by her mother and stepfather, who returned from dinner out to find they could not open the front door as Mr Burr’s body was blocking it.
The couple called 999 and an air ambulance was scrambled to the park nearby, with Ms Burr’s mother forced to flag it down with a small torch.
Ms Burr (pictured left and right, with Paul Gascoigne on Soccer AM in 2009) says she is still feeling the effects of the accident
The tattoo fanatic said she is confident she will get back on her feet and get a new job, and is now dating another man who she met while in hospital
Brain surgeons had to peel back the scalp of Ms Burr to repair the brain injuries she suffered in the fall
Doctors were forced to put Ms Burr into an induced coma due to a serious bleed on the brain
She was rushed to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, where she laid unconscious for a month as doctors tended to her wounds and put a bolt through her skull.
Her parents were told to prepare for the worst due to the extent of the injuries she had suffered in the fall, which occurred in November.
Ms Burr finally had a titanium plate fixed to her skull in February with the help of a 3D printer; technology which the model described as ‘some real James Bond s***’.
Despite her incredible recovery, Ms Burr, from Halstead, Essex, says she is still feeling the effects of the accident.
She added: ‘I was a high-achieving, ambitious person and now I’m a 28-year-old, with no work or social life, living in Halford with my mum.’
However the tattoo fanatic said she is confident she will get back on her feet and get a new job, and is now dating another man who she met while in hospital.
Mr Burr’s parents were told to prepare for the worst due to the extent of the injuries she had suffered in the fall, which occurred in November