A nine-year-old girl who was left seriously injured when she was struck by a car while playing in her front yard is making a remarkable recovery and insists she won’t be in the hospital for too long.
LaDerihanna Holmes was left with a fractured skull and broken pelvis when a car careened across her front lawn in Lithonia, Georgia, last Friday and sent her flying when it crashed through her home.
The horrifying ordeal was captured on surveillance video and showed the alleged driver fleeing the scene as LaDerihanna’s family rushed to save the little girl’s life.
Gabriel Jabri Fordham, 28, turned himself into police on Tuesday and was charged with a number of offenses, including hit and run and serious injury by vehicle.
Fordham has since claimed he was trying to fight off a carjacker at the time of the crash.
LaDerihanna Holmes was left with a fractured skull and broken pelvis when a car crashed into her while she was playing outside her Georgia home last Friday
A week on from the crash, LaDerihanna is adamant she will make a full recovery.
In an interview with NBC from the hospital on Thursday, LaDerihanna said: ‘I’m coming back’.
The nine-year-old is currently in a wheelchair and having physical therapy.
‘We’ve taken a few steps on the walker – as many as I could do. I was like, I’m not going to be in the hospital for too long,’ she said.
She said while she was ‘in a lot of pain’ when she was first rushed to the hospital, LaDerihanna wants to walking in ‘about a week’.
LaDerihanna said she was grateful to her family, medical staff and strangers who have sent her well-wishes following the incident.
‘It’s just wonderful and overwhelming that they’re helping me and praying for me and putting me in their prayers, and it’s just so nice,’ LaDerihanna said.
‘My goal is to get better with the help from everybody in the world.’
The nine-year-old is currently in a wheelchair and having physical therapy after being left in a critical condition following the horror crash
LaDerihanna (pictured in the hospital after the crash) sustained a skull fracture with laceration and a broken pelvic bone in three places
Her parents, Derryl Holmes and Charlette Bolton, said they didn’t actually know if she would survive immediately after the crash.
‘She’s truly a miracle. From what happened to her I’m surprised she’s alive,’ her mother said.
Gabriel Jabri Fordham, 28, turned himself into police on Tuesday and was charged with a number of offenses, including hit and run and serious injury by vehicle
‘She’s a strong, resilient little girl. She’s very, very strong – she keeps me strong on my every day.’
Her parents said LaDerihanna has a long road of doctor visits and physical therapy ahead of her and that she has to learn to walk again, but they are optimistic she will make a full recovery.
In dramatic security camera video of last week’s crash, a black Ford Fusion is seen hitting a stop sign and then careening across the front yard before hitting LaDerihanna as she tried to get out of the way.
Another girl who was playing with LaDerihanna right before the wreck suffered bruising when her foot got stuck between the car and the house.
The man charged over the crash claims he was trying to fight off a carjacker when he veered into the little girl’s home.
His attorney Ryan Williams said a man jumped into Fordham’s car, put a gun in his face and made him drive.
In dramatic security camera video of last week’s crash, a black Ford Fusion is seen hitting a stop sign and then careening across the front yard before hitting LaDerihanna as she tried to get out of the way
The horrifying ordeal was captured on surveillance video and showed a man fleeing (circled) the scene as LaDerihanna’s family rushed to save the little girl’s life
‘My client tried to take the gun from him, the guy hits him in the face, my client blacks out, and that’s why you see the full fledge force of them going through a stop sign,’ the attorney said.
The attorney said a man in white pants who can be seen in the video running from the car just after the crash is the person who attacked his client.
Fordham initially stuck around after the crash, but left after interacting with people who came out of the house, his attorney said.
‘With emotions rising, he had no opportunity to stay there, without possibly being harmed,’ Williams said.
Fordham’s girlfriend owns the car and the couple contacted police the day of the crash, the attorney said. They had been negotiating a surrender in the days that followed.
‘He has not been trying to hide in the shadows,’ Williams said.
Authorities said Fordham was booked into the DeKalb County jail on charges of failure to maintain lane, failure to stop at a stop sign, reckless driving, hit and run and serious injury by vehicle.
A week on from the crash, LaDerihanna is adamant she will make a full recovery. She plans to be back cheerleading in no time