A woman who survived an attack by a stag has spoken for the first time about her ordeal and the support she has received from her family in Dundee.
Dr Kate Stone, 44, admits she is “lucky to be alive” after the animal’s antlers pierced her throat and impaled her spine on December 30 in Lochairlot, near Fort William.
The startled stag charged at her when it became trapped in the garden of local musician Jim Hunter, who had invited Dr Stone and a group of her friends to his home.
Cambridge academic Dr Stone underwent two operations and now has to feed herself through a tube.
She said: “The antler has gone through my trachea and oesophagus, damaging my vocal chords on the way. It fractured my neck and went into my spine. I’m told it stopped just a few millimetres before my spinal cord.
“I’m also told that if it had been slightly to the left or the right, I would have bled to death at the scene.
“My injuries were life-threatening, absolutely, and it’s so strange for me to realise that. That’s why I’m very, very lucky that I can talk at all, walk at all I’m totally lucky to be alive.”
Speaking of the moment she was gored by the stag, Dr Stone said: “I shouted for my friends to come over.
“At first they thought I was joking, but they could tell by the way I was gurgling, rather than speaking, and my neck was all cut open … it became clear I couldn’t breathe or speak properly.
“I remained very, very calm, I just took one breath in and one breath out. That’s what I did for about 40 minutes. I was quite calm and telling people a bit what to do I was very, very self-aware.”
She was airlifted to Southern General Hospital in Glasgow where she underwent lifesaving surgery and is now recuperating at her sister’s home in Kellas, near Dundee, from where she is running her high-tech printing firm, Novalia.
While she was in hospital, Dr Stone’s 17-year-old niece, Charlotte Brimner, who is a well-known performer on Tayside’s live music circuit, wrote a song which she dedicated to her aunt.
The Morgan Academy pupil said: “When I first heard about the accident and then saw Kate in a coma, I was just so scared of what was going to happen and it made me realise just how important family and friends are also how things can just change so quickly.
“I just wanted to put my feelings and thoughts down and so I wrote a song.”
Dr Stone said: “It made me cry a lot. It gave me so much strength.”