A FELIXSTOWE teenager faces a year's physiotherapy after pioneering surgery replaced two of her fingers and a thumb with bone from her pelvis.Kim Murray, of Langley Road, sustained terrible injuries to her right hand when the Fiat Cinquecento she was in overturned on the Bury St Edmunds-bound carriageway of the Orwell Bridge.

A FELIXSTOWE teenager faces a year's physiotherapy after pioneering surgery replaced two of her fingers and a thumb with bone from her pelvis.

Kim Murray, of Langley Road, sustained terrible injuries to her right hand when the Fiat Cinquecento she was in overturned on the Bury St Edmunds-bound carriageway of the Orwell Bridge.

The 16-year-old was a passenger in the car, driven by a 19-year-old friend, when it was in collision with a Ford Focus on the Wherstead side of the bridge around 1.20pm on Saturday, June 10.

Miss Murray had to be rescued by firefighters after she put her arm out of the Fiat to protect herself, trapping her hand between the road and roof as it skidded for nearly 70 yards.

A team of plastic surgeons from the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital had to graft bone from her pelvis and tendons from her wrists and ankles to rebuild her fingers and thumb.

The teenager had two operations before undergoing eight hours of surgery to attach the tendons and bone.

Speaking in a national newspaper today, Miss Murray said: “I can't really remember the accident. With all the morphine and stuff I had been given, I couldn't really think about any of it afterwards. It was only after the first operation that I could begin to get my head around it.”

Plastic surgeon Elaine Sassoon, of Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, was quoted as describing Miss Murray's injuries as “horrific”.

Aside from physiotherapy, the teenager also faces two further operations to improve the cosmetic appearance of her new hand.

Her father, Stuart, 37, praised all the hospital staff who helped his daughter and supported the family through their “traumatic experience”.

Three other people involved in the crash, including two of Miss Murray's friends, were treated for what police described at the time as minor injuries.