A YOUNGSTER has returned home after an horrific car accident but has been told he needs major brain surgery to repair a severed facial nerve.

Garred Simpson, 11, of Carr Hall Road, Barrowford, suffered a fractured skull when he collided with a car in Carr Road, Nelson, as he was going to the fun fair with two friends last Saturday.

He has now returned home and in a week's time he will be in the operating theatre at Manchester Royal Infirmary where neurosurgeons will perform a delicate operation to graft together the two parts of his severed facial nerve which have left him paralysed down the left hand side of his face.

His parents Michael and Julie said Garred, who was due to start at Fisher More High in Colne next month, initially went deaf as a result of the accident but because his hearing has returned, surgeons said they will have to remove part of his skull above his ear in order to access the severed nerve.

They do not know how long the operation will take or how long it will be before Garred recovers and is able to go to school.

After the accident he was taken to Burnley General Hospital and then transferred to Blackburn Royal Infirmary but allowed home.

He went for all day tests at Manchester Royal on Thursday and is recuperating at home with his four sisters, aged eight to 16, waiting for the vital operation next Monday.

His friends rushed to get Garred's parents after the accident and they found him conscious in the road being tended to by a nurse who had been driving on the same road.

Julie said: "We would like to find out who the nurse was and personally thank her for everything that she did to help Garred."

The paralysis was evident immediately and a CT scan revealed he had severed the nerve behind his ear where it leaves the skull to connect to the face.

Julie said: "Some people say he has been lucky, but really he has been unlucky because it is damaged in the worst possible place.

"He looks marvellous now compared to how he did in hospital but he has to stay inside and can't play out with his friends."

Garred is very active and enjoys climbing, swimming and being outdoors and wants to be a mountaineer.

He said: "I feel better now I am back at home and the food is better -- I get to choose what I want!

"After the hospital tests on Thursday I got to have McDonald's!

"I can't watch TV or play on the PlayStation for too long because it hurts my eye but I have had lots of friends round to visit me."

Garred has had to adapt his eating and drinking, because he has no control over the left hand side of his face.

And the boy, who was known at his previous school St Thomas' in Barrowford as a comedian, is already using the paralysis to make his friends laugh by rolling his eyes around!

He would like to thank everyone who cared for him in the hospitals.

The family is now hoping something may now be done to have traffic calming measures installed on the roads in the area.

Police said Garred was struck by a relatively slow moving Vauxhall Astra and the driver was unhurt.