Gap year student left in coma and can't remember her name after Goa scooter crash

Gap year student left in coma and can't remember her name after Goa scooter crash 2 hours ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Chris Wood BBC Wales Nic North After Olivia's family failed to get hold of her, they made frantic phone calls before locating her in an intensive care unit A student was left fighting for her life after suffering a brain injury in a scooter crash at the end of a dream trip around India. While Olivia North, 21, lay in a coma, her family were making plans to meet her from the plane on her return to the UK. But after not hearing from her for two days, dad Nic frantically rang around hostels where she had been staying, before locating her in the intensive care unit of a Goa hospital. Olivia couldn't remember some family members or her own name at first, but a month on from the crash on 5 May, she is preparing to fly home to continue her recovery in Wales. Describing every dad's nightmare, Nic said: "When I couldn't get hold of her, on the other side of the world, I was frantically trying to contact anyone who ever knew her. "Then flying out with my stomach in knots, not knowing if she would recognise me. It was so good to see her alive and hold her." Olivia is still suffering from deep fatigue, and is unable to do much more than walk 100 metres (328ft) before "curling up and sleeping for the rest of the day", according to her dad. But doctors have given her the all clear to fly back to the UK at the end of the week and continue her recovery at home in Cardiff. Nic North It has been a harrowing end to what was a trip of a lifetime Olivia had finished the second year of a Media and Communications degree at Goldsmiths, University of London, when she decided to have a break from studying, before completing the final year. After working in bars and restaurants to save money, she left for India just after Christmas. Her adventure around the south Asian country took her to Rishikesh in the north, the ancient temple towns of Pushkar and Hampi and India's largest city Mumbai. Olivia then decided to have some time relaxing on the beaches of Goa before flying home. "The night before she was going to travel back, we were all getting ready to meet her in London, and she went for dinner with friends," Nic added. He said she was travelling back to her accommodation by scooter when she "smashed her head on the road or wall, knocked herself unconscious". "She wasn't wearing a helmet - absolutely idiotic. If something comes from this, I want every kid on a gap year to wear a helmet. "It's non-negotiable, it's a fight for survival on those roads, scooters jostling everywhere." Nic North Nic praised the doctors who saved Olivia's life, although how she got to hospital after the crash is unclear This was when all contact with her family ceased, and Nic described the panic of phoning around friends, and places she had visited and stayed in Goa for any kind of steer on where she was and what had happened. He found the hostel where Olivia had b