The British tourist who lost the lower half of her left leg after being hit by a cab in midtown Manhattan appeared on the "Today" show Tuesday to recount her entire ordeal.
23-year-old Sian Green spoke to the hosts on "Today" about the moment when her life changed five weeks ago.
"We came here thinking we were just coming on a holiday," she said. "And then it's like been a whirlwind and it's just turned [everything] upside down."
Green was hit by a cab on Aug. 21 that skidded out of the way of an approaching bike messenger. The taxi, headed uptown on Sixth Avenue, swung onto the curb and crashed into the Leicester native who was crossing at 49 Street.
Green said every so often, she experiences flashbacks and anxiety. She stated that she was somewhat wary of walking around on the streets after being released from her hospital stay.
"It takes me back a little bit," she explained. "Even when I see a yellow car."
Green wore a pink dress with a hem that fell just above her knees during the interview, exposing the white bandage wrapping the place where her left shin once was. She recalled in detail the way she felt immediately after she got hit by the cab.
"I couldn't move," Green said. "It was one of them things. If I had gone left, it'd had got me; if I had gone right, it'd had got me."
The cab driver said he lost control of his vehicle, after a 40-year-old bicyclist yelled at the taxi to slow down just moments before he ended up getting hit. The bicyclist slammed on the hood as Green was struck on the curb. Green's friend Keshia Warren was with her when the accident occurred, and heard the argument between the bike messenger and the driver before the crash. But she had no idea that her friend had been hit until bystanders started running in her direction.
"I didn't realize until I turned around and saw the whole accident that she wasn't with me," Warren told "Today."
Plumber David Justino stopped to help Green by using his belt as a tourniquet.
"I just grabbed my belt, went over, lifted her up, put it on, held it," Justino told NBC at the time of the accident.
Since the accident, Green has been in physical therapy sessions, learning how to work with her missing limb, the New York Daily News reported. Although she said the event was stressful for she and her family, Green smiled throughout the entire interview, keeping a bright spirit. She thanked the "very good people in this world" who came to her aid after she got hit.
"They saved my life," she said. "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be sitting here right now telling this story."
