Sonic Youth Gossip - I never wanted my navel pierced anyway, but now...

A teenage girl had a miraculous escape when her belly button stud almost pierced through to her spine in a car crash.

Art student Jessica Collins, 19, from Radyr, Cardiff, south Wales, was in a car crash in Munich, Germany, last week. The 19-year-old's seatbelt was so violently projected into her stomach that it forced her metal navel stud almost through to her spine. But luck was on her side as a surgeon happened to be in the car behind the one in which she was travelling. Despite the freak nature of her injuries, he understood the seriousness of the situation and immediately called for an air ambulance.

Meanwhile, an ambulance travelling on the same road arrived on the scene carrying life-saving equipment. She was stabilised before being flown to hospital and operated on within an hour. Surgeons who fought successfully to save her life later compared her serious internal injuries to a bullet wound.

Jessica's family flew out to Germany last week and her mother Amanda Beadle remains at her daughter's side as she recovers from surgery. Stepfather Chris Beadle, who is now back in the UK, said: "Fate would have it that there was a paramedic in the car behind and an ambulance already following along the road. Even then, had they not been there, I would say that Jess would not be with us now. But it was a very close call. She was being operated on within the hour but it was a three-hour operation. The surgeons said that they had never seen anything like it before - they compared her injuries to a gunshot wound. The stud had gone through several layers of intestine almost to the spine. When she got out of surgery, she was on life support for 24 hours."