A 3-year-old Nevada girl has miraculously survived the harrowing moment when she was kicked in the head by a wild horse. The girl's mother, Haley Wilkey, inadvertently captured a video her daughter admiring the horse right before the incident took place, not knowing that the wild animal would turn into her toddler's attacker.
"I thought she had died because she was unresponsive," the mother recalled to Fox 5 Vegas of the terrifying ordeal.
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The mother, her husband, and their four children, were at Mt. Charleston recreation area's Lee Meadows range doing a photo shoot for another family at the time that two wild horses appeared. A handful of other people were also around, and Haley filmed two of her daughters standing near the horses.
"What is it?" the mother is heard asking her 3-year-old, who responds: "It’s a horsey," before turning her back. That's when the video ends.
The mother details the next moments where her son approached her and she turned her back to talk to him. Within that instant, the horse made its way to Olivia and kicked her in the head. Haley's screams alerted her husband, who had to drive down the mountain for cell service in order to call for help, and there was a stranger who thankfully rushed over to help.
"He had a first aid kit. He gave me gauze, helped me put pressure on her head until the bleeding slowed a little," she recalled, adding that she and the man used their hands to keep pressure on the wound, "holding her head shut" for nearly 45 minutes before an ambulance arrived.
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Miraculously, the girl survived. She was flown to a nearby hospital where scans showed no brain issues. She underwent a three-hour surgery, during which a neurosurgeon fused her skull back together. She also suffered a brain bleed, contusion on the brain, and a "severe concussion." However, within a few days, Olivia was sitting up in bed and talking. In less than a week, she was released to go home.
In a message to the bystander that helped, Olivia's father, Austin Wilkey, said: "I wish I got his phone number. I actually hugged him. I said thank you so much. You saved my daughter." Haley added, "Just thank you. There’s no way I could, I have no words to express how grateful I am, but thank you."
