Woman who suffered 96 per cent burns when her coach burst into flames in French Alps wins seven-figure payout
Catrin Pugh, 22, was given just one in 1,000 chance of survival by medics after burns ravaged every inch of her body but her scalp and soles of her feet
A WOMAN who suffered 96 per cent burns after a coach she was travelling in burst into flames on the French Alps has won millions of pounds in compensation.
Catrin Pugh, 22, has been awarded a seven-figure payout after a horrific crash three years ago left her with severe burns on every inch of her body apart from her scalp and the soles of her feet.
Brave Catrin, from Rossett in North Wales, was given just a one in 1,000 chance of survival and is believed to be the oldest person in the world to survive being so badly burned.
She spent three months in an induced coma and has had more than 200 operations since the accident which left her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
She has also been left with no central vision, used to see straight ahead after her optic nerve was damaged. She struggles to grip things because of her hand injuries and even had to learn to walk again.
Catrin was 19 when she was involved in the accident which completely changed her life. She was returning from a ski season in the French Alps in 2013 when the coach she was travelling in crashed and burst into flames near the Alpe d’Huez resort.
She was pulled from the wreckage of the fireball of the horrific road crash, which killed the coach driver and injured dozens of her fellow passengers.
She said: "I remember being on fire. It's a feeling that's very difficult to describe. You just feel very numb everywhere and I have since learned that's because it had burned through my nerve endings.
"It was like a scene from a horror film. I thought I was going to die. I remember them asking me where it hurt the most and me screaming 'it hurts everywhere'."
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She was flown to Grenoble hospital in a helicopter where she was placed in an artificial coma as
her family rushed to her bedside.
She was then moved to a hospital in Lyon, where her family were told the devastating news that she was unlikely to survive.
But Catrin made a miraculous recovery and was flown by air ambulance to the specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital in Merseyside.
As well as the extensive burns, she suffered major lung and chest injuries, fractured ribs and was also suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.
She was treated there for eight months, learning to walk again and undergoing hundreds of operations as she fought for her life.
She said: "My eyes didn't get burned, but because I was so ill and nearly lost my life on a number of occasions, it caused my optic nerve to get damaged.
"I have been left with no central vision and that's what you use to see detail. I can't see people's faces. I will walk into a bar and I won't be able to see my friends until I'm a foot away from them."
Catrin is now an ambassador for the Katie Piper Foundation after a visit from the model, who was scarred for life after sulphuric acid was thrown in her face.
Her lawyer, Slater and Gordon's Joanne Berry, who helped her win her compensation against the coach operator said: “Catrin is, without doubt, one of the bravest and most inspirational individuals I have met.
"Nothing can make up for what she has been and continues to go through, but what this settlement can do is pay for the care she needs and make things easier in the future."
Catrin was awarded a seven-figure payout but the full amount has not been made public.
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