My date from hell left me in a wheelchair and scarred for life

A woman who survived a “date from hell” that left her in a wheelchair and scarred for life has detailed the excruciating pain she endured and how she recovered.

Kiaha Kurek, 35, of Portland, Oregon, met a man on the dating site Plenty of Fish in 2012. She was looking forward to their date, but she never expected it to end with her bruises and bloody marks.

Her date took them to the cinema, but on the way back, they were involved in a traumatic car accident in which another vehicle collided with them while they were traveling at 50 mph.

Their car was hit on the passenger side – the side Kiaha was sitting on – and the then 24-year-old was awakened by the sound of rescue teams cutting her from the vehicle. The following year, she attempted to recover from the trauma and learn to walk again.

As they drove to the cinema for their first date, the man she met on the dating app – who had said he was 24, but was actually 19 and was a newly qualified driver – stopped mid-turn.

Kiaha saw headlights coming straight at her and at that moment thought she was going to die.

“I remember sitting in the car, seeing headlights coming at me and thinking, ‘This is the end,'” she recalls.

“I woke up and my eyes were burning because blood was dripping into them – and I heard a loud noise as the car was cut open.”

She said, “I tried to get out of the car and realized I was hurt. It hurt so much that I passed out again.’

And things didn’t change when she got to the ER.

“I kept passing out, waking up, and in so much pain when they took me to the hospital — I begged for painkillers,” Kiaha explains.

Kiaha broke her pelvis, several ribs and her leg was completely shattered, requiring reconstructive surgery.

Once she arrived at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital, she was told she had an extensive catalog of injuries and even said she might never walk again.

She remembered begging for painkillers because she was experiencing internal bleeding and her liver had ruptured.

She said, “While I was in the ER, I remember the doctor trying to pull glass out of the side of my face.

“I was covered in blood from head to toe, my clothes were bright red and had to be cut off.”

And while Kiaha knew things had gone horribly wrong, she explained that the reality of the horrific situation only dawned on her when she saw her parents arrive.

She explained, “When my parents arrived, I remember being so scared because normally my parents are so cold, but they looked so worried.”

Kiaha had to undergo a seven-hour operation to put her shattered femur and pelvis back in place, as well as a blood transfusion.

Because she was in “excruciating pain,” doctors had to give her an epidural to numb her body.

“I remembered being in excruciating pain after surgery and was devastated when doctors told me I might not be able to walk properly,” she said.

After her release from the hospital, Kiaha depended on her parents for everything.

She said, “I had to move back in with my parents and I had to rely on other people to do everything, which was the worst part.

“I couldn’t dress myself, feed myself, or do anything on my own.

“I couldn’t get out of bed, and that was the worst part: I had to rely on others to do everything for me.”

A physical therapist came by daily, and it took her six weeks to take a single step, and she was wheelchair-bound for months.

Getting back on her feet in the aftermath was the “hardest part,” where she woke up every morning in “absolute pain.”

The process took a total of a year – starting in a wheelchair, then moving to a walker, then crutches, then a cane, finally walking unassisted.

She was left with a huge scar on her leg – which she hid with a tattoo a year later to help her move forward.

A few weeks after their “date from hell,” the man driving the car called her to apologize.

“My date called me a few weeks later to apologize and I never heard from him again after that,” she said before reflecting on the couple’s date.

Kiaha went on her car accident date from Plenty of Fish in November 2012.

She went out to dinner with her date, who told her he was also 24, but was actually a newly qualified 19-year-old driver, she said.

She said her date was eager to show her his new muscle car, so she agreed to a movie visit.

But no sooner had they exited the parking lot than they found themselves in the path of oncoming 50-mph oncoming traffic, she said.

Kiaha said, “We went left and it just stopped dead, halfway through the turn.”

When he called her after the accident, he revealed the truth about his age.

She said: ‘He revealed he had lied about his age and was only 19. I was very upset that he lied – he was a very new driver.”

Due to her medical bills totaling $1,000,000, Kiaha filed for bankruptcy but chose not to sue her date and put the accident behind her.

Reflecting on the journey, she said, “When it comes to dating, you have to be aware of how much trust you place in people.

“Trust your gut feeling — if it says don’t get in the car, listen to it. Listen every time.’

Now married to Bartek Kurek, 45, Kiaha has had tattoos to cover the scars on her legs – saying they are a reminder of her “worst date ever.”

“Ten years later I’m happily married and I could tell Bartek was the one from our first date – it was the complete opposite of my first date from hell!”

She explained that she knew right away that he was the one.

Kiaha added, “On our first date, I called my best friend and said, ‘I think I’ve found my future husband’ and I had that.”

“It was the complete opposite of that first date from hell, and I’m so happy now.

“Sometimes life just happens, you can wallow in it or do something else and move on.”