PLEASANT VIEW, Utah - An 11-year-old Weber County girl has died Monday evening after being impaled by a window blind rod.
On Saturday, 11-year-old Nikki Clark was walking up a flight of stairs in her family's home while carrying a rod used on window blinds.
According to a family spokesman, Nikki slipped and fell, landing on the rod. The family said the rod went through her chest, and when she pulled it out, the injury got worse.
Nikki was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. Her family said she was brain dead and on life support Monday.
"They did everything they could and she's been on life support since then. Yesterday there was some brain activity. As of this morning, there isn't any," said Brandi Babbitt, Nikki's aunt, on Monday afternoon.
Hospital administrators say she died at around 7 p.m. Monday. Doctors had considered putting Nikki on antibiotics and her family had considered taking her off life support on Tuesday, but she succumbed to her injuries before those possibilities could take place.
Nikki was the youngest of three girls. Her family says she was a kind-hearted girl who brightened the lives of everyone she knew.
"Nikki was the child that when she walked into the room, she wanted to know if you were okay," Babbitt said.
Nikki's family has decided to donate her salvageable organs. She will be buried next to her great-grandmother at Hyde Park Cemetery in Cache Valley.
The family is accepting donations to help pay her medical bills at U.S. Bank under the name Nicole (Nikki) Clark.
