Carina Melchior - the 19-yr-old who woke up from coma as doctors were preparing to harvest her organs

A teenage girl in a coma after a catastrophic car crash came round just as doctors were about to declare her brain dead.

Carina Melchior had had life support withdrawn on the advice of medics and was being prepared for organ donation. But to the astonishment of staff at the Aarhus Hospital, in Denmark, the 19-year-old suddenly opened her eyes and started moving her legs.

She is now making a good recovery at a rehabilitation centre and is able to walk, talk and even ride her horse Mathilde.

Her family is now suing the hospital for damages, claiming that doctors had been desperate to harvest her body parts.

'Those bandits in white coats gave up too quickly because they wanted an organ donor,' her father Kim told the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

The family’s lawyer Nils Fjeldberg said that Ms Melchior keeps asking if doctors were trying to kill her. 'Of course this is a great trauma, both for her and her parents who were convinced that there was nothing else that could be done and agreed to donate her organs,' he told the newspaper.

Ms Melchior, now 20, crashed her car in October last year. She was in hospital for three days before doctors realised her brain activity was fading and consulted her family about stopping treatment.

It was at this point they agreed to donate her organs.

The case has sparked a public debate in Denmark about donations and end-of-life treatments, with registered donors withdrawing consent in fear of doctors acting too quickly.

The Danish government is drawing up new guidelines to prevent doctors from making preparations to remove organs until the patient is officially declared clinically dead.