MILFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - An 8-year-old girl is regaining her strength after police said she was hit by a pickup truck while crossing the street in Milford last week.
Now her mother is speaking out, saying her daughter Jenna was going to the library with her father and brother when tragedy struck.
“My ex-husband was able to get my son out of the way, but couldn’t get my daughter out of the way in time, and she ended up underneath the truck. He had to pull her out,” Cassandra O’Donnell, Jenna’s mother, said.
After Jenna was hit, a nurse nearby jumped into action. O’Donnell said she may have saved her daughter’s life.
“I’m not sure what would’ve happened if she wasn’t there. I think it could’ve been a lot worse if she wasn’t on the scene when it happened,” O’Donnell said.
Jenna suffered a collapsed lung, internal bleeding, exhaust burns, and a fractured rib. She was flown to a hospital in Worcester, where she remains in the intensive care unit (ICU), but her family says she is improving every day.
“She’s good, she is able to walk around a little bit,” O’Donnell said. “She has smiled a little bit since they’ve taken her off the morphine, she’s a little more herself. A little more talkative, but she doesn’t want to talk about it or hear anyone talk about it.”
Her family wants to thank the nurse who didn’t hesitate to help.
“I do not know her name, but I would like to say thank you. I truly appreciate it and my whole family appreciates it,” O’Donnell said.
Jenna will have to undergo more surgeries in the future, but her family is hoping she will be out of the ICU very soon.
A GoFundMe set up by Jenna’s family to help pay her medical bills can be found here.
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