A week after being severely injured in a plane propeller accident, Lauren Scruggs has smiled and lifted both eyebrows for the first time.
Earlier in the week, we requested prayer for Lauren's facial nerve, and it appears prayers have been answered!" reads a post from Saturday on CaringBridge.org, the site the injured 23-year-old model's family uses to update well-wishers on her condition. "Lauren is able to smile and lift both eyebrows on her own, such a miracle!"
Scruggs suffered lacerations to her face, a fractured skull and a severed left hand when she walked into a still-spinning propeller at Aero Country Airport, about 30 miles from Dallas, on December 5. She was moving in the darkness toward the front of the plane - possibly to thank the pilot, who was a friend of hers.
The family has been using the site since Lauren's accident as a way of informing supporters of her milestones. They are now asking for prayers to focus on her left eye, which she could lose due to extensive damage sustained in the incident.
"She was awake and alert for most of the day!" the post, which went up shortly before midnight Saturday, reads. "She was able to drink some juice and eat a tiny bit, keep praying for this! She walked up and down the hall 3 times today with the help of a physical therapist, the doctors are all very pleased with her progress."
Model and editor Lauren Scruggs continues to show signs of recovery since her devastating plane-propeller accident. On Dec. 8, the Scruggs family reported Lauren had taken 30 steps, and had said the number out loud, indicating she had been counting. She knows she "was in a bad accident," mom Cheryl told reporters. "But she can't remember any detail of it at all."
She had also seen her face for the first time, in a mirror. "She looked and she said, 'That's not that bad,'" said dad Jeff. "So that was really encouraging. You know what, and she still has her beautiful smile."
Though Lauren had been excelling at physical therapy, her father said, cognitive challenges still lay ahead.
Due to the number of surgeries Lauren will need, her parents have set up the Lauren Scruggs Hope Fund to raise money to help pay for her medical bills. Donations can be made at CaringBridge.org.
TODAY