A mother has spoken of her agony after switching off her 24-year-old daughter’s life support the day after she was hit by a lorry and left with incurable brain damage.
Anysha Vincent was struck in the early hours of September 2 on the A40 in London.
She was airlifted to London’s St. Mary’s hospital and put on life support, by which time her family had all arrived.
‘When the police knocked on our door at 2am and said Anysha was in hospital, we thought she’d broken her leg or something,’ her mother Louise Hatton, 50, said.
‘She’s clumsy like me and was always getting into scrapes like that.’
Anysha Vincent, pictured, was hit by a lorry in the early hours of September 2 on the A40 in London, and taken to St Mary’s hospital in London
Louise Hatton, Anysha’s mother, said that she first through her daughter may have broken her leg as they were both quite clumsy. But when she arrived at hospital, she was told by nurses to prepare for the worst
But upon arriving in Hospital Ms Hatton, from Folkestone in Kent, said realisation set in when staff at the hospital told her and the rest of Anysha’s family to ‘prepare for the worst’.
‘They then took us to see her in A&E. She looked like she was sleeping, if you ignored all the IV lines,’ Ms Hatton said. ‘Then she had to go to intensive care to go on life support because of the brain damage.
‘The doctors did their best for 24 hours but there was nothing they could do.’
Ms Hatton, with ex-husband and Anysha’s father Darren Vincent, 52, had a meeting with surgeons at the hospital who told the family that the damage was too severe.
Anysha worked at The Railway, a pub in West Hampsted, and her mother, who has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for her daughter’s funeral, described her as ‘bubbly and sociable.’
‘Even if they kept her alive, it wouldn’t be a life worth living, not for someone like her.
‘They then took us to see her in A&E. She looked like she was sleeping, if you ignored all the IV lines,’ Ms Hatton said. ‘Then she had to go to intensive care to go on life support because of the brain damage’
The family agreed that the best thing to do was to take Anysha off life support, with her mother Louise (pictured right) saying that ‘Even if they kept her alive, it wouldn’t be a life worth living, not for someone like her’
‘She was so bubbly and sociable, she loved painting so much, we couldn’t make her spend the rest of her life barely conscious in a hospital bed. It’s not what she would have wanted.’
The family agreed that the best thing to do would be to take her off life support, saying that they were with her until the end. She died on September 3.
‘We sat by her bed and I held her hand until it was all over. There were a lot of tears and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do but it was the best thing for her,’ Ms Hatton said.
She has since created a GoFundMe page to raised funds towards Anysha’s funeral. So far, it has raised over £3,370 of its £5,000 goal.
On the page, she said she was ‘posting this with a heavy heart’, and went on to describe the events that ultimately led to the decision to take Anysha off life support.
Pictured: Louise holding Anysha as a toddler. Louise has created a GoFundMe page to raised funds towards Anysha’s funeral. So far, it has raised over £3,370 of its £5,000 goal
‘We cannot get over the shock as she had just started a new job and on her way to promotion and just decorated her room. She was such a happy young woman and very well loved by all. We are all completely numb,’ she wrote.
‘I hardly ever ask for help but sadly we have no savings to give my beautiful girl a good send off.
‘This has been so hard to write. But if you have a spare few pounds to help with funeral we shall be truly grateful.’
Her mother said that Anysha ‘would do anything to help people’, adding that she was very popular and that the family have received many messages of support saying how she helped people through their low moments.
She added that her daughter had a special connection with her younger half-brother Brandon, 17, who was diagnosed with autism when he was six.
‘We knew she was popular but it’s so overwhelming to see how adored she was.
Left: Anysha with half-brother Brandon, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of six. Her mother said that Anysha ‘would do anything to help people’, adding that she was very popular and that the family have received many messages of support saying how she helped people through their low moments
‘She was an amazing big sister as well. Her half-brother was diagnosed with autism when he was six, but they had a special connection from an early age. She absolutely adored him.
‘I can remember them huddled up on the sofa drawing together, she would make arts and crafts with him.’
Ms Hatton also paid tribute to the staff from the emergency services who responded to the incident, who worked hard to save her life. ‘They were amazing,’ she said.
‘The people who tried to resuscitate her by the road, the paramedics, the air ambulance staff, the nurses, the brain surgeons – they were all incredible. They couldn’t have done more.’