A COURAGEOUS teenager has defied doctors by fighting back from horrific head injuries which left her in a coma on a life support machine.

Rosemary Greenwood, 17, was not expected to live after plunging from a motorway bridge at Huncoat.

Her will to live astounded doctors as she fought back, supported by her family who have been at her bedside throughout the traumatic past few months and her slow re-awakening.

Rosemary, who lives in Station Road, Huncoat, with her mother and step-father, Joan and Hugh Barrington, has now been moved from Blackburn Infirmary to a rehabilitation unit.

Her mother said: "For her to get so far after the injuries she suffered has been nothing short of a miracle."

The former Moorhead High School pupil, who suffered brain damage, is walking under supervision and talking to a certain extent.

Her mother said: "She's not in any sense back to her normal self. Whether she will be one day we don't know."

"She has brain damage, but to what extent and what will repair itself we don't know.

"No surgeon in the land knows enough about the brain."

Doctors held out no hope for Rosemary when she was rushed to hospital after falling from the bridge on Sunday February 23.

Her family were told she had only hours to live.

Mrs Barrington said: "She literally defied all medical science. "She fought and had a will to live." Her family talked to her constantly and played tapes of her favourite music not knowing whether she could hear or not.

Her mother paid tribute to the "fantastic" staff at Blackburn Infirmary where Rosemary recently celebrated her 17th birthday with a cake.

She is now being helped with intensive therapy at a rehabilitation unit out of the area.

Her mother said: "She is getting therapy in all fields to try and help her get as far as she can.

"It's going take a long time before they can say this is it, this is as far as we can get.

"She has come so far against all opinion the doctors just won't commit themselves at the moment."

Rosemary has a brother Tim, 12, and Mrs Barrington has two older married daughters.

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