Amazing Amy on way to recovery

Just under four months ago she was fighting for her life after being trapped underneath a car, but today little Amy Samuel is back playing with her friends and determined to carry on with her dancing classes.

The two-year-old has stunned physiotherapists with her rapid progress after being left in a critical condition following the accident in Darlaston last year. She struggles to walk unaided over any great distance but is able to take steps herself and enjoys being back with friends at the town’s SureStart.

With continued physiotherapy it is hoped the keen dancer could make a complete recovery.

A special wheelchair is being made for Amy, who is three in May, and it is hoped she will be able to start at Kings Hill Primary School in Darlaston in September.

She was injured after her mother’s Fiat Punto rolled on to her near SureStart, in Crescent Road, on October 24 last year.

Firefighters freed her from underneath the car and she was revived by paramedics after she stopped breathing.

Amy went to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where her mother and father kept a bedside vigil and she was transferred to Walsall Manor as her recovery progressed. She was allowed back home after two weeks.

Her mother Caroline Andrews, of Old Park Road, Darlaston, said: “She is doing really well but nobody can say how much she will improve at the moment. Amy has physiotherapy once a week and at first there was a drastic change but now it is more gradual.

“She is a fighter and so determined, there is nothing she won’t try including her dancing. She keeps falling over but laughs and gets up.

“She enjoys being back with her friends at SureStart Darlaston even though she can’t do everything the others can. Amy can’t walk far but she can join in games and is capable of feeding herself. It is still hard to believe what she has been through in her young life and how she has improved.

“When she first came out of hospital she couldn’t even lift her head, but now she understands everything that is going on. Her co-ordination isn’t as good as it was but looking at her now you would not know just months ago she was fighting for her life.”