HERRIMAN, Utah — A 9-year-old girl is back at home nearly two months after a serious car crash left her with critical injuries and the community was there to give her a warm welcome back.
Lily was injured in a crash on March 2 and her biological father was arrested on suspicion for driving under the influence.
On Thursday, the community gathered around her mother's Herriman apartment to set up posters and balloons.
One of those watching on was Mathias Maillet, the man who helped save her life.
Read - Family speaks out after 9-year-old critically injured in DUI crash
“It’s a miracle...let's be honest,” Maillet said. “Someone who passed twice in like 30 minutes and is here today is just amazing.”
Maillet recalled the moment that he saw the car go off the road saying “ Two cars ahead of us is literally like… my wife is like look at the tree shaking and I’ve seen the car just like… and I got out of the car.”
Maillet jumped into action, asking the driver if there was someone in the car with him recalling "he said yes my daughter and at this stage, I am like wow what am I going to find there” adding after he got to her “I kinda slapped on her left cheek and I am like come back come back with me, come back come back.”
At first, she wasn’t breathing but thankfully he felt her start to take shallow breaths. Maillet asked people for help and one woman called 9-1-1.
He talked them through what he was seeing and also explained her father was sitting away from the car with his own injuries. Within a few minutes, first responders arrived and Lily was flown to the hospital.
Mathias didn’t know if she was going to survive and said, “you kind of blame yourself you did your best, but you blame yourself what else could I have done.”
Remarkably she's back home after a long journey in the hospital.
“For me, it's like, I don’t feel like it's happening.” Shaun and Karlene Lindberg, Lily's mother and stepfather said.
The recovery was long with and her mom documented the entire process reflecting, “imagine waking up from your worst nightmare and it being true.”
“I’ve been saying that she couldn’t do anything at first and then the first thing she did was put on her on chapstick," Shaun said. "Its just been little milestones like that every single day, and every one of them is overwhelming.”
Even though she was a little embarrassed Thursday, Lily’s homecoming is a day everyone won't soon forget.
"It made mom cry…” Lily said with her dad asking “how did it make you feel?”
“Happy,” she said with a big smile on her face.
