A Nevada mother unknowingly captured a peaceful moment of her young daughter walking through the Nevada grasslands just before a wild horse kicked the little girl in the head.
“She was unresponsive so we thought she was dead,” Haley Wilkie said, recalling the terrifying incident.
Toddler Olivia’s skull was cracked in the brutal beating and her mother was forced to hold her head in excruciating pain for 45 minutes until help arrived.
Miraculously, the three-year-old survived the horrific incident and was released from hospital less than a week after nearly dying, and her mother captured the attacker on video.
In the video, Olivia can be seen watching from a few feet away as a beautiful black mustang munches on grass on Mount Charleston, 40 miles west of Las Vegas.
Wilkie, her husband and their four children were in the mountains for another family photo shoot when two wild horses appeared.
“What’s that?” Wilkie asked his little daughter, who sweetly replied, “A horse.”
That’s when Olivia turns her back on the wild horse, which can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, and the video cuts.
After a few seconds, the beast approached the girl and attacked her.
Wilkie He told Fox 5 Vegas Her screams alerted a stranger who played a key role in saving Olivia’s life while her father went down the mountain to search for cell phone signal in the remote area.
“He had a first aid kit. He gave me some gauze and helped me put pressure on her head until the bleeding stopped a little bit. If we let up a little bit, she would start bleeding again,” Wilkie said.
“I think he just kind of had his head closed waiting for the ambulance to come for almost 45 minutes,” Wilkie added.
An ambulance transported the girl to a helicopter, who then took her to University Medical Center.
Olivia underwent a three-hour operation where neurosurgeons put her fractured skull back together, her family said in an online fundraiser.
She also suffered a brain bleed, a brain contusion and a “severe concussion.”
Despite her serious injuries, Olivia was speaking with her loved ones just three days later and released from hospital less than a week later.
Her grateful family told Fox 5 Nevada they’re sharing their story in hopes of warning other parents about Mount Charleston’s wild horses.
Looking back, Wilkie admits he got too close to the animals, but now he says he would leave the pasture as soon as a horse showed up.
