LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – An interaction with a wild horse ended in near tragedy when the horse at Mt. Charleston kicked a three-year-old girl from Logandale in the head on Saturday.
“I thought she had died because she was unresponsive,” said mother Haley Wilkey.
Haley Wilkey says her family, including four children, were at Lee Meadows to do a photo shoot for another family when two wild horses appeared and calmly walked near some people holding a picnic. Wilkey says there were many people around at the time. Wilkey shot video of two of her daughters near the horse. The mother says she stopped recording when her son approached. She says she turned to tell him to slow down. In that moment while she turned away, the horse closed in on her three-year-old daughter Olivia and kicked her in the head.
Wilkey screamed for her husband, who rushed over. He ended up driving down the mountain, due to a lack of cell service, to call for help. Haley’s screams also attracted another man to the scene, someone the family did not know.
“He had a first aid kit. He gave me gauze, helped me put pressure on her head until the bleeding slowed a little,” said Wilkey.
Both the man and Wilkey used their hands to keep the pressure on the bleeding wound.
“If we let up a little bit of pressure, it would just start flowing again,” she said.
Wilkey added, “It was like, I think, almost 45 minutes of holding her head shut waiting for the ambulance to come.”
An ambulance picked up the little girl and a helicopter flew her to UMC from near U.S. 95.
“They saved her life,” said father Austin Wilkey.
The family says scans at the hospital showed no brain issues and Olivia was sitting up in bed and talking on Tuesday evening. The family says she may be able to leave the hospital on Wednesday.
The family did not get the phone number of the bystander who helped but have this to say to him.
“I wish I got his phone number. I actually hugged him. I said thank you so much. You saved my daughter,” said Austin Wilkey.
“Just thank you. There’s no way I could, I have no words to express how grateful I am, but thank you,” said Haley Wilkey.
The parents say they wanted to tell their story so other parents are aware around wild horses at Mt. Charleston. Haley Wilkey tells FOX5 in hindsight she was too close to the horse at the time. But says knowing what she knows now, she wouldn’t even be in the meadow with horses around.
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