3-Year-Old Girl Kicked in Head by Wild Horse, Mom ‘Thought She Had Died’

A young girl in Nevada is now recovering at home, after a kick to the head from a wild horse landed her in the hospital.

On Saturday, Aug. 3, 3-year-old Olivia Wilkey, her parents Haley and Austin Wilkey, and her three siblings headed out to Upper Lee Meadows, a national recreation area in Mount Charleston — just outside of Las Vegas — to help with a photo shoot for another family, according to local outlets 8 News Now and FOX5 Las Vegas.

Haley told FOX5 Las Vegas that as the family they were helping out got settled on picnic blankets and her own kids were playing nearby, two wild mustangs approached the heavily populated area. At first, the horses kept their distance, and the mom-of-four even captured footage of Olivia with the horses wandering in the background.

However, Haley said, just seconds had gone by when one of the wild animals charged at her daughter Olivia and kicked her in the head before it ran away.

“I thought she had died because she was unresponsive,” Haley told FOX5 Las Vegas.

“I didn’t know if my daughter was dead or not,” Austin added to 8 News Now, a local CBS affiliate station.

Haley said she quickly dashed to her daughter’s side and screamed for her husband’s help, according to FOX5 Las Vegas, and Austin then began driving back towards Las Vegas to call for help, as cell phone reception in the area was extremely limited.

Another man whom the Wilkey family didn’t know also came to Haley’s aid, as she put pressure on her daughter’s head in an attempt to stem the bleeding.

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“He had a first aid kit. He gave me gauze, helped me put pressure on her head until the bleeding slowed a little,” Haley told FOX5 Las Vegas of the man, recalling how they both used their hands to put pressure on Olivia’s head.

“My wife had to hold her head shut, and she got so tired that another gentleman stepped in and held her head shut,” Austin told 8 News Now.

“If we let up a little bit of pressure, [the blood] would just start flowing again,” Haley added.

By the time Austin had reached an area with cell phone reception and contacted authorities, almost an hour had passed since the horse’s kick.

“It was like, I think, almost 45 minutes of holding her head shut waiting for the ambulance to come,” Haley told FOX5 Las Vegas.

Eventually, Olivia was transported to a Las Vegas hospital by medical helicopter, where doctors monitored her for 12 hours before she eventually underwent a three-hour-long surgery performed by a neurosurgeon to repair her skull, 8 News Now reported.

Mount Charleston Fire & Rescue shared a statement about the incident on Monday, Aug. 5, according to the outlet, and confirmed that the incident took place at around 6:15 p.m. on Friday.

“Mt. Charleston Fire and Rescue responded to a report of a child kicked in the head by a horse in Upper Lee Meadows in Lee Canyon,” the statement read, per the outlet. “Upon arrival the crew on scene found the child to be in critical condition. The child was life flighted to [University Medical Center].”

Although Olivia spent several days in an intensive care unit fighting for her life, she was finally released from the hospital just days ago, according to a GoFundMe page set up by Olivia’s family to assist with paying medical bills.

“Olivia was released from the hospital today and [is] at home healing with her family,” an update posted to the GoFundMe page — which raised more than $20,000 and has since been paused — reads in part. “We are blessed that she is alive and recovering better than anyone could have hoped for.”

According to the Southern Nevada Conservancy, wild horses and donkeys roam freely in the area and are protected under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which makes it illegal to handle, interfere with or feed them.

“[There] is a high risk of being bitten or trampled because they are wild animals, so please keep your distance,” the organization recommends to visitors in the area who encounter the animals. “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 also added in its statement that the U.S. Forest Service would be investigating “the cause of the [horse] attack.”