A disturbing video shows a three-year-old girl having a photoshoot with a horse in a meadow, moments before the animal mauled her.
The incident occurred on August 3, at Mount Charleston, when Haley Wilkey, the girl’s mother, was recording her daughter, Olivia, as she pointed toward the wild horse, per Fox 5 Vegas.
In the video, Haley can be heard asking her daughter, “What is it?” while Olivia’s older sister watched nearby.
Shortly after filming, Haley’s attention was diverted when her son approached, prompting her to stop recording and caution him to slow down.
In that brief moment, the wild horse closed in on Olivia and delivered a devastating kick to her head, leaving the young girl unresponsive.
“I didn’t actually see the horse kick her, but her older sister did. She said Olivia instantly fell to the ground,” Haley recounted. “Instantly, I saw her head was opened.”
Overcome with panic, Haley desperately tried to stop the bleeding, receiving assistance from a bystander who had a first aid kit.
“He gave me gauze and helped me put pressure on her head until the bleeding slowed a little. If we let up a little bit of pressure, it would just start flowing again,” she said.
With no cell phone service available, Olivia’s father, Austin, had to drive down the mountain to call for help.
“It was like, I think, almost 45 minutes of holding her head shut, waiting for the ambulance to come,” Haley explained.
Olivia was airlifted to a hospital in Las Vegas, where she underwent a three-hour emergency surgery to repair her skull.
She sustained a severe skull fracture, bleeding in her brain, a contusion, and a severe concussion. Doctors closely monitored her for 12 hours before performing the procedure.
“I’ll make payments the rest of my life, I don’t care. Just get her to safety,” Austin told KLAS, expressing the family’s immense relief that Olivia had survived.
A GoFundMe page was set up in order to assist the family with the medical bills, and the page raised $20,450.
The family described Olivia as "a special little girl" who "brings joy and laughter to all who meet her".
An update on the page revealed that the three-year-old had been discharged from the hospital and was continuing her recovery at home.
Scans revealed no permanent brain injuries, and she is reportedly sitting up and playing again.
The family was blown away by the support offered to them and although they know that they have a long road ahead, they are optimistic about the future.
The Wilkeys expressed their deep gratitude to the strangers who helped, particularly the Good Samaritan who assisted in controlling Olivia’s bleeding.
“I wish I got his phone number. I actually hugged him. I said thank you so much. You saved my daughter,” Austin said.
Reflecting on the harrowing experience, Haley acknowledged that the family had been too close to the wild horse.
“Knowing what I know now, we wouldn’t have been there to begin with,” she admitted.
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