I can’t sleep and I’m scarred for life – doctors told me I was lucky to survive car crash, says Yazmin Oukhellou
YAZMIN Oukhellou has revealed she has been left scarred for life after doctors told her she is lucky to have survived the horror crash which killed her boyfriend, Jake McLean.
The Towie star told how she is getting therapy following the ordeal in Turkey as she struggles to understand why she is still alive and Jake isn't.
“I know this will live with me forever, I need to take it slowly,” she said.
The grief and shock have left the TOWIE star needing to sleep side-by-side with her mum Lisa, who had flown out to Turkey immediately after the tragedy to be by her daughter’s hospital bedside.
Yazmin, who has also opened up on the moment she tried to save Jake, was told she probably only survived because she was asleep at the moment their car plunging off the side of a cliff.
“I severed an artery and a nerve, that’s why I bled so much. The doctors called me an angel, a miracle, because it’s a notorious spot and people have never survived. Now I’m just wondering how the hell did my partner die while I’ve survived? It’s made me look at life totally differently,” she said.
Read More on Yazmin Oukhellou
“I am definitely going to need therapy for a while, and I’m going to try some in-patient treatment too. I know this will live with me forever, I need to take it slowly.
Trying to explain her emotions following the tragic accident, Yazmin said: “I’m very up and down. One minute I’m OK and then I’m not, and I think that’s just what happens with grief.
“I’ve lost relatives before — I lost my nan last year who was close to me — but I have never lost someone who I loved in an intimate way. It’s very difficult.” The horror has also left her with permanent physical scarring and potentially in need of plastic surgery.
Doctors in the UK have warned she may never fully regain use of her right arm.
Most read in Showbiz
But she went on: “I could have been like Jake and not survived so I’m just very grateful and lucky that if that’s the worst case scenario, I will deal with it as best I can.
“The scarring that I have is awful so I will always have that as a reminder. But at least I’m still alive.” She continued “I’m staying away from social settings, I’ve stopped logging into social media, and I’ve changed my mobile number.
“For now, I just need to focus on getting well again and dealing with what has happened.
“Jake is the only person I have ever felt a love like that for and I think for me it’s going to be very, very difficult to get over this.
“This will stay with me for life. But for me, I loved him so hard and that’s why I travelled across the world to be with him.”