In the Blink of an Eye: The Story of Mia Austin and Her Triumph over Locked-In Syndrome

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Your experience within the NHS sent shivers through me as I have battled through exactly the same experiences with varying staff and carers. That’s what she wanted to do with two friends,” Carol Austin, Ms Austin’s mother, told the inquest, BBC News reported. I feel like even before I got injured and when I was injured I was still learning from them," she said. Heartbreakingly, Mia passed away on Wednesday, June 26 - just two days before she was named Merseyside's Woman of the Year. She continued to travel and undertook lots of charity work, including sleeping out on the streets of Liverpool to raise money and awareness of homelessness.

She was a party animal before her incident but she doesn’t let it stop her doing anything now, either - she doesn’t class herself as disabled. She even travelled to Africa to support communities, visit orphanages and schools and deliver donations of stationery and toys.

Mia has taught us how to deal with adversity, to give generously to those in need, to inspire people to be the best versions of themselves, not to take tomorrow for granted, to live life to the full, but most importantly, how to be a nice person. Speaking after the inquest, organisers of the Merseyside Women of the Year awards said: "Mia was a truly inspirational young woman and an extremely popular and deserving winner of two Merseyside Women of the Year awards, Inspirational Woman and overall Woman of the Year.

Although she was left unable to speak, move and only able to communicate through eye movement, determined Mia pushed the boundaries to live her life to the full. I feel like in that time I wanted to work on things I probably wasn’t as good at, like ground-level work and being better at that.I just wanted to go back and have fun and enjoy footy, because I feel like that’s when I play my best”. Since her diagnosis the travel industry charity Abta LifeLine was involved in helping to support Mia through fundraising for a specially-adapted car. She later had one placed in her mouth, but choked on the sweet and became unconscious and died at the scene, despite the efforts of those with her in the chalet, park staff and paramedics. With the pressures that come with Austin’s Rising Star, Polatajko has given the 19-year-old reassurance that her team will support her the whole time. An amazingly frank,honest,insight into how unless can turn your life round literally In the blink of an eye.

A week after opening her eyes, Mia was diagnosed with ‘Locked-in Syndrome’, a condition where Mia has been left her trapped in her own body, unable to speak. We can all take our memories of Mia into our future lives and be thankful for the short, but memorable time we each have spent with her. The next day Mia had some frozen pasta delivered to the Diner and left a note for Roman: “See you for lunch?At the age of 21, Mia was working as a Travel Agent and a regular at the gym living the life of a typical 21-year-old. has used her time on the training track and with her coaches to take it as a positive and take the challenge in full stride. There was a lot of training, I think we trained eight months of rehab before we could get back with the team,” Austin said. Recording a verdict of accidental death, North Wales senior coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said the stroke had taken away Ms Austin's ability to cough or bring up anything that would cause choking. I feel like she’s grown with confidence every week and she’s starting to learn how dominant she can be in the air and at ground level.

While Mia can see, hear, and think as normal, she cannot move from the neck down and has to be fed through a tube.Mrs Austin told the inquest at Caernarfon that, after her daughter's stroke, she was fed a liquid diet but had progressed to eating soft food over the years.