Pictured: Brave model Lauren Scruggs seen in public for first time with prosthetic eye since horrific propeller accident



Model and fashion blogger Lauren Scruggs has been pictured for the first time with the prosthetic eye she was fitted with after accidentally walking into a plane propeller last year.



The 23-year-old was seen leaving a gym on Tuesday with her mother Cheryl in her home town of Dallas, Texas having made a remarkable recovery.



She was wearing her favourite blue Cowboys cap and a long-sleeved jacket covering her missing left hand.



Courage: Lauren Scruggs, who almost lost her life in a horrific plane propeller accident last year, was pictured at a gym in Texas after being fitted with a prosthetic eye three weeks ago

Miss Scruggs was nearly killed on December 3 when she walked into a plane propeller after taking a ride with a friend to see the Dallas Christmas lights from the sky.

She suffered a fractured skull, broken collarbone, brain injuries and lost her left hand. Two weeks after the tragic accident, doctors decided that they had to remove Lauren's eye.

Her mother Cheryl Scruggs wrote on the devoutly Christian family's Caring Bridge website today: 'How blessed we are to see God's Presence in Lo every single day. We never take this for granted.

Courage: Lauren Scruggs, who almost lost her life in a horrific plane propeller accident last year, was pictured at a gym in Texas after being fitted with a prosthetic eye three weeks ago

'We are blessed beyond measure; blessed beyond our wildest dreams. Easy to say, hard to live.



'Not all of it appears, externally, as blessing, but "we know that all things work together for those who love God," and we believe this is true.'

Though her parents have been actively updating her friends and family through their Caring Bridge website and television appearances, Lauren made her first public appearance on January 17.

She was seen walking out of Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas wearing a patch over her missing eye and a Cowboys football hat pulled low.

The prosthetic eye is a major step in her healing process, but she still has a long way to go.

Her mother Cheryl Scruggs said two weeks ago that while some of the physical pain that she used to feel while trying to sleep - which she described as 'ferocious' at the time - has lessened, Lauren needs now to move on to her other forms of recovery.

Last weekend Miss Scruggs posted two photographs to her Twitter page - one showing her and a friend wearing sunglasses and pouting, and another bundled up on the slopes watching ski jumping.

The successful fashion blogger has shown inspiring stoicism as she makes her recovery.

Out on the slopes: Lauren Scruggs posted this picture earlier this month saying she was watching ski jumping with family and friends

Sunny outlook: Lauren posted this picture of her and her twin sister Brittany accompanied by the tweet: 'Such a fun weekend with sweet family and friends'

At the start of the month her father Jeff Scruggs told the Today Show: 'She’s got her spunk back, her personality. '



He said that she took a mirror and held it up to her face, shrugging it off, saying: ‘It’s not that bad’.

'How blessed we are to see God's Presence in Lo every single day. We never take this for granted. ' Cheryl Scruggs, mother



‘She’s excelling in the physical and occupational therapies and they're not as concerned about. It’s more of a concern about the cognitive and neurological therapies that she’s going to need after this,’ he continued.

More details continue to emerge about the December 3 accident as the emergency 911 call was released in late January.

'A girl walked into an airplane prop - I need an ambulance immediately,' the female caller tells the 911 operator in the seven-minute recording obtained by TMZ.com. 'I think it cut her hand off.'

In the call, placed at 8.48pm from the private airport near Dallas, the male caller described the model as conscious and breathing but bleeding badly with her face to the ground .

When asked exactly what part of her body she injured, the male caller says: 'We don’t know, we haven't turned her over.' Her cries and moans became louder throughout the call.

In the city: Just before the serious December accident that left her without a hand and an eye, she was working to build up her own fashion site and held interviews at New York Fashion Week

Witnesses thought that Lauren must have been crossing in front of the plane to go thank the pilot Curt Richmond, who was trying to warn her to avoid the propeller.

Mr Richmond put down his arm and turned away from her when he thought she had turned to walk away from the spinning propeller, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

But it's unclear whether she heard his warning over the roar of the engine.



Moments later, someone on the ground screamed 'Stop! Stop!' and Mr Richmond saw her lying on the tarmac and he immediately cut the engine.

Mr Richmond, believed to be a friend of Lauren's, had left the engine running while new passengers filed into the small plane as he prepared another trip to the skies.

The NTSB did not find fault with the pilot for the accident but air safety investigator Denny Kelly said Mr Richmond is ultimately responsible because he 'should have shut the engine down'.

Family: Lauren Scruggs pictured with her father, mother and twin sister - who was suffering 'sympathy pains'

'I don’t know how to thank each one of you, properly, for so much love during this difficult incident in my life,' Ms Scruggs wrote in January.

'My heart is so grateful beyond what I could ever imagine.

'Thank you dearly for the sweet encouragements, the precious words in letters and messages, the beautiful grace in pretty presents.