Florida Girl, 12, Returns Home Following a Nearly 4-Week Hospital Stay After Being Hit by a Car on Her Last Day of School
A young girl is back home with family in Florida after a nearly four-week hospital stay
12-year-old Eden was hit by a car while riding a scooter on her last day of school in May
"Considering how everything could have turned out, [it] absolutely could have been a whole different circumstance," the girl's father said, reflecting on the incidentA young Florida girl is back home with family weeks after she was hit by a car.
Natalie Blouse and Paul Moody, the grandmother and the father of 12-year-old Eden, spoke with CBS affiliate WINK-TV about the preteen's "miracle" recovery — just weeks after she was injured in Charlotte County on May 29.
According to NBC affiliate WBBH and WINK-TV, Eden was struck by an unlicensed driver on the last day of school as she was riding her scooter along Easy Street.
She suffered a brain injury and a broken vertebrae, as well as cuts and scrapes, Fox affiliate WFTX reported, and she had been recovering at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
"I would never, ever wish this on my worst enemy," Blouse said of her granddaughter's incident. "I still have nightmares when I go to sleep about it."
"I heard the crash, and I just had a feeling it was her," she added. "And sure enough, it was."
Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) arrested Arlin Salazar on May 29, and she was charged with operating a motor vehicle without a license, according to police records.
WINK-TV reported that Salazar was traveling south on Easy Street while Eden was traveling west on Crestwood Drive on an electric scooter. The young girl reportedly stopped at a posted stop sign before entering the roadway in front of the vehicle.
The FHP said the driver — who was later taken to Charlotte County Jail — was not at fault, per WINK-TV. (Eden's family has called for additional charges.)
"Her head smacked the windshield, she did suffer very severe head trauma, there is bruising on her brain, there's frontal lobe brain damage," Eden's father previously told WFTX, adding that the injury temporarily left her unable to move or speak much.
"You can tell she just gets frustrated and she screams and it's heartbreaking seeing that type of frustration. She just doesn't have the control over her body that she's used to having," Moody added at the time, calling Eden a "warrior through it all."
Moody and the girl's grandmother said Eden can now walk and talk again. Still, they said the family was "really worried" whether Eden was "going to make it" during her first three days of recovery. Blouse told WINK-TV she "never left her side."
"I still won't, because she's our angel, she's our blessing from God," Blouse added. "It's definitely a miracle. God definitely answered our prayers."
"Considering how everything could have turned out, [it] absolutely could have been a whole different circumstance," Moody said.
The father added that holding his daughter again was "the best feeling in the world." Eden's grandmother is now working on setting up signs along their street to encourage drivers to slow down and watch out for children.
A GoFundMe campaign, organized to raise money for Eden's recovery, called her a "sweet, caring, strong, and beautiful" girl who "deserves to have a full, active life."
The fundraiser has since brought in nearly $2,400 of a $5,000 goal.
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