Niki Taylor On the Mend

Thu., Jun. 21, 2001 10:45 AM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Two months after her near-fatal car crash, doctors say Niki Taylor is on the road to recovery as her condition was officially upgraded Thursday.

"She's in good condition and has been moved out of the ICU," says Denise Simpson, spokeswoman for Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital.

Taylor, who was taken out of intensive care Thursday, has steadily improved since doctors performed risky surgery to repair severe damage to her lungs and liver in the days following the April 29 accident. In mid-May, she was taken off an artificial respirator and has since been able to hold conversations with her family.

"[I'm] hopeful that Niki will be able to participate in rehabilitation therapy very soon," says her physician, Dr. Jeffrey Nicholas. He did not, however, elaborate on what kind of therapy she would undergo.

The 26-year-old fashionista was hospitalized in critical condition after sustaining severe internal injures when the car she was riding in struck a utility pole. James Renegar, Taylor's friend and the driver of the vehicle, told police he lost control of his 1993 Nissan Maxima on an Atlanta off-ramp when he looked down to answer his cell phone.

Renegar and another passenger were treated for minor scrapes and released shortly after the wreck.

Taylor was wearing her seatbelt at the time and seemed unscathed after the crash. However, she soon began experiencing intense abdominal pain and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

The leggy blonde, who's the mother of twin 6-year-old boys, Jake and Hunter, had been in Atlanta visiting friends for the weekend and was about to fly back to her home in Fort Lauderdale to start taking acting lessons. (Since the accident, her sons have been home in Florida with their father, Taylor's ex-husband Matt Martinez.)

The Sports Illustrated swimsuit staple shot to stardom at the age of 14 when she landed on the cover of Seventeen magazine. In addition to spreads in SI, she has traipsed the runway for the world's top fashion designers and appeared in TV commercials for Cover Girl and Liz Claiborne.

Taylor's no stranger to tragedy, having lost her then-17-year-old younger sister, Krissy, also a model, to an asthma attack and undiagnosed heart condition in 1995.