A 3-year-old girl has defied the odds when she achieved a significant step in her ongoing recovery after surviving being hit by a car.
After months of surgery and years of therapy, Shaylie Edwards, now aged 6, has graduated from kindergarten.
“This kid was just destined to do something incredible,” Erica Edwards, Shaylie’s mother, told Fox news.
The incident happened when a car approaching the sidewalk struck both Shaylie and her father.
Shannon Edwards scooped Shaylie up to protect her when he saw the car coming, but when the car hit him, the impact sent Shaylie flying 40 feet into the air after colliding with the car’s hood before landing on the ground.
Multiple Injuries
Young Shaylie was left with broken bones in her neck, jaw, femur, sacrum, and a brain injury. Shannon required full facial reconstruction after sustaining seven facial fractures. Experts predicted she would never speak, eat, or walk again.
But Shaylie has disproved the doctors and recently completed kindergarten. Dr. Kris Deeter, a pediatric intensivist and the medical director of Pediatrix Critical Care and Hospitalists of Nevada, called Shaylie a “miracle.”
“She is a miracle child, and I don’t say that too often; I am very grounded in science,” Deeter said. “But as her mom mentioned, she surprised us every day, and she got through an injury that other children and adults would have never survived.”
After three months in the hospital and undergoing extensive therapy, Shaylie learned to speak and eat again. Shaylie can easily keep up with her peers despite using a walker when she walks. “She might not be an Olympic runner, but she’ll be fine,” Erica said.
“I was a very spiritual person before this—I always believed in God, but I [wasn’t] much of a churchgoer, not much of a follow-the-Bible-to-the-book type of person,” she said.
“But I’m a full believer now … God speaks to me all the time.”
Erica added: “I have my baby back. Her sense of humor is back, and every day I’m grieving a little less about what we lost that day.”
The driver of the car that hit Shaylie has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of reckless driving, but won’t serve jail time.