SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- For the first time since an accident that nearly took her life, Korren Grada is speaking out. Her hope is to save others from suffering the same fate.
Two hit-and-run drivers ran into Grada, leaving her to die. She tells 10News - it all started with a blind date in 2017.
Grada was at the top of her game last year. A bikini fitness model dedicated to her physique. That all changed after she swiped on a dating app.
“I went on a dating app, I chatted with a guy," she said. "He seemed normal, everything seemed fine in the chat.”
The two met in the Gaslamp on Memorial Day. She says her date bought the drinks.
"That’s really the last thing I remember, was drinking that drink," she said. "The next thing I know...I woke up from a coma, which I was in for two weeks.”
A CHP officer had to fill in the details - telling Grada that she made her way to Lakeside that night, a city she didn't even know existed. From there, she made her way onto Interstate 8.
"I jumped a nine-foot fence in Lakeside," she said, shock on her face. "I don’t even know where Lakeside is. I’m from new york; I had just moved here.”
The CHP report indicates that Grada scaled the fence and fell onto the freeway below.
"I got hit by a Ford F-250 or 350 truck, and then another vehicle," she said.
Based on the report, the drivers did not stop to help her. But, a good Samaritan in a tractor-trailer blocked traffic, getting her out of the street and eventually into an ambulance.
Her right leg was left immobile. Her stomach was torn open, and her lung- lacerated.
More than a dozen surgeries later, the former athlete is now fighting just to use the bathroom.
"It was immense depression," Grada said, sighing.
But through it all, Grada says she’s maintained the same goal - to get back on the fitness stage again.
"I want to show women (that) your scars, they’re beautiful," she said. "That’s the story of you.”
A GoFundMe has been set up for Grada to help her pay for a hip replacement, a sling, diapers and dental work. So far it has raised more than six-thousand dollars.
