'My daughter was left in a coma after horror scooter crash during gap year trip to India'

A university student from Aberystwyth suffered serious brain injuries in a horror gap year scooter accident in India just days before she was due to fly home. Olivia North is thought to have hit a pothole and was left unable to remember her beloved dog or older brother. The 21-year-old is now stuck in India and unable to fly home due to the severity of her brain injuries. In just a matter of weeks her family have spent thousands of pounds on flights, accommodation and private medical care to support her. Olivia was two years into studying for a media and communications degree at Goldsmiths, University of London when she decided to embark on the trip of a lifetime. Having completed the start of her degree she chose to defer her final year having become "disillusioned with university life". She spent six months working full-time in bars and restaurants to save up for her travels before she embarked on the trip of a lifetime around India, travelling around on her own and experiencing the vast culture the country has to offer. However, at the start of May no one could get in contact with Olivia. For the biggest stories in Wales first sign up to our daily newsletter here . Olivia's dad, Nic North, recalled the moment he realised something must've happened. "I'd had the conversation every parent of a child embarking on a gap year overseas dreads," he said. "Four days earlier [Olivia's sister] Beatrice, in her second year of a psychology degree at Manchester University, had called me to ask if I'd heard from Olivia in the past 24 hours. 'Not to stress you, Dad, but I haven't heard from Liv since 11am yesterday,' she said. "I hadn't heard, no. The lack of contact was unusual because Olivia liked to touch base with one or both of us – and her mother, my almost ex-wife – several times a day." Writing for the Daily Mail , Nic explained how Olivia would normally send photos every few days and share tales about the various new friends she'd picked up during her travels. Beatrice had told him Olivia had planned to get dinner at a tapas restaurant run by a surfer friend, a 15-minute scooter ride from where she was staying in northern Goa. The mention of a scooter immediately sent shivers down Nic's spine. In January, his daughter had been knocked unconscious after her scooter hit a metal bar sticking out of a building. After 20 stitches and antibiotics to treat the serious infection, Olivia had made a full recovery. In a desperate panic Nic called and texted his daughter but each one was left unanswered. He then managed to get through to the owner of the hostel where she'd been staying who admitted he'd not seen her since the day before. After making a few calls he was given the devastating news that Olivia had been involved in a very serious road accident and had been taken to a hospital in southern Goa. After frantically phoning hospitals all over the region Nic finally managed to locate his daughter. Nic said: "'Your daughter has been critically injured,' Dr Samira told me. 'She collided with another scooter at 50 to 70kph [30 to 40mph] and was not wearing her helmet. She has a subdural hematoma with intrusion, or bruising, and a bleed on her brain measuring 3.6mm.'" Subsequent MRI scans revealed a significant injury to her left side temporal lobe which is what stores memories, and her cerebellum, which controls orientation and balance. 48 hours later Nic and his youngest daughter flew from Heathrow to Goa, via Delhi. Olivia was being treated in the ICU at Goa Medical Centre in Bambolin where she had been in a coma. Nic said: "Although she remembered us, she believed her older brother Sam to be her uncle and, more tragically, had no memory of her beloved dog, Raj, or his death just days before Christmas last year. "She didn't remember where she went to school or even the things she enjoyed so much, such as horse riding and representing her country at cricket as a teenager. But she was – is – miraculously, alive." Her dad said he was shocked at the lack of resources and claims that "within minutes" of them arriving his daughter was discharged due to the number of patients. Still suffering with a bleed on the brain, the family have set up base at a hotel close to a private hospital where she is being regularly assessed and scanned. She had suffered a serious brain injury and a severe facial gash which almost resulted in her losing her left eye. She also sustained two fractures to her wrist and lower arm which Nic said were initially missed by doctors in the first hospital she attended. Now recovering from the traumatic incident, Olivia is sleeping for around 20 hours a day. She has no memory of the crash or the days leading up to it and can only walk short distances. Olivia is also unable to fly back to the UK because the aircraft cabin pressure poses a high risk to her kind of brain injury. Her dad explained how the police officer who investigated the crash said she was riding within the speed limit and he thought she'd hit a pothole in the dark and lost control. However, at the time of the crash Olivia hadn't been wearing a helmet which had invalidated her travel insurance and now left her family in what they have described as "a deepening financial hole". Nic said: "Even now, I cannot comprehend Olivia's decision not to wear a helmet. Perhaps she thought lightning couldn't strike twice after the first accident. More likely she didn't think at all because, at 21, sometimes you just don't. "And I know, having witnessed the scooter riders myself, there are many who don't. Who of us can honestly say we've never done anything unwise in our younger years?" In three weeks since the accident, Olivia's family has already spent over £7,000 on flights, hotels, private healthcare, food and travel, and they are aware this will likely only increase further as they wait for Olivia to get the all clear to fly home. Nic has set up a gofundme to help the family pay for the expenses they are now facing as a result of the crash. You can donate to the fundraiser here. Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice .