A YOUNG woman who was left with a functioning brain but no movement in her body and no speech has said she has “indifferent” feelings for the speeding motorist.
Lydia Branley was severely maimed in a crash near Sligo town just 18 months after she helped guide US president Barack Obama’s Air Force One across the Atlantic to Europe on his first flight as president.
She has “spoken” for the first time since Martin Kearney, the man who ended her dreams, was sent to jail more than two weeks ago.
She said: “It does not make it any better that he is in prison. I am still in the same position now. I feel little for him. I am indifferent to him.”
Branley (27), through a unique system she has established with her family, spoke for the first time since Kearney (31) from Ballina, Co Mayo, was imprisoned for four years with another two years suspended.
Although physically dependent on others for almost every move since emerging from a coma nine months after the September 2010 crash – at a speed of 150km/h – Branley has learned to signal with her eyes when communicating.
Family members chant letters of the alphabet and with Branley moving an eye each time they reach the letter she wants, she carries on conversations.
When she wants to start communicating she makes a loud click with her tongue on the roof of her mouth to attract attention.
Amazingly, despite her agony, she retains a sense of humour and her family remembers when they first saw a hint of a smile after she emerged from the coma.
It was when a visiting cousin suggested Branley would be soon able to share a bottle of Miller. She considered that funny.
Her dad, Martin, said: “When Lydia smiles she always had a bit of a dimple and it showed then.”
It was around that time that she also discovered she couldn’t eat, speak or move a single muscle. She is in Manorhamilton hospital but she is allowed home to her family regularly.
She told me at her home in a valley beneath the Dartry Mountains outside Kinlough, Co Leitrim: “When I woke up I knew I could not move so I knew also that I was on a long journey. I could make no sound so I did not try.”
Her first question through her special communications system to her younger sister Andrea was what happened.
Branley has no memory of the crash. She heard details of it for the first time in court when gardaí told the judge she was a front-seat passenger in a high-powered BMW which Kearney drove on to a slip road at 150km/h.
He lost control and the car left brake marks for 114m, crossed two barriers, and tumbled and rolled for another 100m before striking a pole and turning upside down.
In her first interview since the court case, Branley said that although she still has a voice-box, her lungs cannot produce enough air to help her speak.
She said it was “extremely frustrating” to have a fully functional brain and no body movements or speech.
“I hope for progress but I accept it will be slow and laborious,” she continued.
She travelled a lot before the incident, mainly to Europe and she had dreams of going further afield, to Australia and the US.
“I have relatives in California. Further on, I thought I would marry and have children.”
Branley, who graduated with first-class honours in civil engineering from NUI Galway, started work in March 2009 as a radio officer at Ballygirreen, near Shannon, Co Clare. She linked communications between air traffic controllers at Prestwick in Scotland and pilots in mid-Atlantic.
She remembers on March 30th talking to the pilot of Airforce One as he crossed the Atlantic carrying Mr Obama on his first official visit to Europe.
“I enjoyed the work and my colleagues were great people,” she said.
She had a career to envy.
Now what does she miss most? She replied simply: “A walk.”
A Lydia Branley Trust has been established to help her family transport her between her home and hospitals where she is undergoing medical and therapy treatment. The trust is in AIB, Ballyshannon – sort code 937185; account number 12933032.