CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -
A Clarksville family remains hopeful their young daughter will walk again after she was involved in a devastating crash last year.
Stephanie Voller's then five-year-old daughter Emily was on her way back home from Nashville with her aunt on February 17, 2011 when the families lives were dramatically changed.
"It was about 9 o'clock," recalled Voller. "I heard from Brittany and she said, ‘We'll be there in 10 minutes, we're right down the road.'"
However, Brittany and Emily never made it home because they were involved in a head-on-collision on Warfield Boulevard when the driver of the another vehicle crossed the center line.
Authorities said the driver, Kristopher Colbert, had twice the legal limit for alcohol in his system.
Investigators told Nashville's News 2 Emily bore the brunt of the crash.
"She was so innocent." said Voller. "She was sleeping when it happened."
Officer John Reyes with the Clarksville Police Department said, "From what the roadway left behind as far as evidence, it was instantaneous, a split second."
The car Emily and Brittany were riding in was crushed, leaving the child severely injured.
The young girl had a torn trachea and was paralyzed from the chest down. She spent more than a month at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville.
"It just breaks my heart," said Voller. "She was just a kid. She liked playing at the playground and going on hikes in Dunbar Cave."
In the year since the accident, Emily has not only adapted, but has learned to thrive.
She loves going to school, playing with her friends and showing off her new skills on her wheelchair, including doing wheelies.
Voller told Nashville's News 2, "For all of this to happen to her and for her to still be so happy and bubbly and tell jokes, laugh and smile, it's amazing."
Doctors have told Emily there's a two percent chance she may walk again.
A big part of that chance includes an experimental study Emily has been chosen to participate in this fall in Houston.
"They'll take her bone marrow from her hip and inject it into her spine to hopefully rejuvenate the cells that were damaged and hopefully we can get her to walk again," explained Voller.
Voller said it will cost about $30,000 for Emily to undergo the surgery and physical therapy afterwards.
In an effort to raise money for the pending surgery, Emily's elementary school is selling t-shirts and having bake sales to help reach the goal.
Voller said it's that two percent chance that keeps their family going.
"This is everything to me right now, getting her there," said Voller, "She is, her whole story really, is an inspiration to so many."
For more information on how to help Emily, visit her Facebook page.
