On August 3, a family from Las Vegas was in a national leisure area in Mount Charleston when two wild horses came up to them.
A girl in Nevada was hurt by a wild horse and had to go to the hospital. She is now healing at home.
Local news stations 8 News Now and FOX5 Las Vegas say that on August 3, Olivia Wilkey, her parents Haley and Austin Wilkey, and her three siblings went to Upper Lee Meadows, a national recreation area in Mount Charleston, just outside of Las Vegas, to help another family with a photo shoot.
Haley told FOX5 Las Vegas that two wild mustangs came up to the crowded area while the family they were helping set up their picnic blankets and her kids were playing nearby. At first, the horses stayed away, and the mother of four even took a video of Olivia with the horses walking around in the background.
There had only been seconds between that, though, when one of the wild animals charged at her daughter Olivia and kicked her in the head. It then ran away.
When Haley saw that she wasn’t moving, she thought she had died, she told FOX5 Las Vegas.
Austin told 8 News Now, a local CBS sister station, “I didn’t know if my daughter was dead or not.”
FOX5 Las Vegas reports that Haley sprinted to her daughter’s side and screamed for her husband’s help. Austin then started driving back toward Las Vegas to call for help because cell phone service was very bad in the area.
There was another guy who helped Haley who the Wilkey family didn’t know. Haley was putting pressure on her daughter’s head to stop the bleeding.
“He had some bandages with him.” “He gave me gauze and helped me put pressure on her head until the bleeding stopped a bit,” Haley told FOX5 Las Vegas of the man. “They both put pressure on Olivia’s head with their hands.”
“My wife had to hold her head shut, and she got so tired that another gentleman stepped in and held her head shut,” he told 8 News Now.
“If we let up a little bit of pressure, [the blood] would just start flowing again,” Haley said.
It had been almost an hour since the horse kicked by the time Austin got to a place with cell phone service and called the police.
Hadley told FOX5 Las Vegas, “I think she held her head shut for about 45 minutes while we waited for the ambulance.”
Olivia was finally taken to a hospital in Las Vegas by medical helicopter. There, she was watched by doctors for 12 hours before a neurosurgeon fixed her brain in three hours, according to 8 News Now.
According to the news source, Mount Charleston Fire & Rescue released a statement about the event on Monday, August 5. They confirmed that it happened on Friday around 6:15 p.m.
“Mt. Charleston Fire and Rescue responded to a report of a child being kicked in the head by a horse in Upper Lee Meadows in Lee Canyon,” the statement claimed. “When the crew got there, they saw that the child was in very bad shape.” The child was taken to [University Medical Center] by life flight.
Olivia was fighting for her life in the intensive care unit for several days, but she was finally freed from the hospital a few days ago, according to a GoFundMe page set up by her family to help pay her medical bills.
Olivia was taken out of the hospital today and is now recovering with her family at home, according to an update on the GoFundMe page. The page raised more than $20,000 but has since been taken down. “We are blessed that she is alive and recovering better than anyone could have hoped for.”
The Southern Nevada Conservancy says that wild horses and donkeys roam freely in the area. They are protected by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which says that it is illegal to feed, touch, or interfere with them.
The group tells people in the area who see the animals to “please keep your distance” because they are wild animals and there is a high chance of getting hurt or stepped on. “A good rule of thumb is at least a school bus length away, and walk away (taking your food) if they approach you.”
Mount Charleston Fire & Rescue said also said that the U.S. Forest Service would look into “the cause of the [horse] attack.”
