Heroic nine-year-old loses her leg after leaping in front of a truck to save her little sister



Who needs guardian angels when you have an older sister?

Nine-year-old girl Anaiah Tucker, from Atlanta, made the ultimate sacrifice for her five-year-old sister Camry when a truck was hurtling towards them.

She pushed her out of the way, bearing the brunt of the impact herself, breaking both legs and her neck in the process.

My hero: Five-year-old Camry kisses her older sister who saved her life after pushing her out of the way of an on-coming truck, critically injuring herself

Family: Mother Andrea Taylor watched in horror as her eldest daughter Anaiah was hit by a passing truck and left fighting for her life

Now the nine-year-old is being hailed as a hero for her courageous actions that likely saved the life of her sister.

Speaking about her brave decision, she said: 'She was too young to be hit like this, and if she got hit she would hardly be alive. She would probably be gone forever.'

The children were on their way to catch the school bus when the accident happened.

Anaiah knew there was not enough time for them both to escape so took the full impact herself.



Their mother Andrea Taylor was watching from the road side as she did every day and watched in horror as events unfolded.

Angel: Anaiah Taylor said she would do the same thing all over again because she loves her sister and did not want her to get hit

Welcome home: The sister's play together happily when Anaiah is finally released from hospital after three weeks as she embarks on a long period of recovery

Injuries: As a result of the accident Anaiah broke her neck, damaged her spleen, lost a kidney and broke both her legs, one of them had to be amputated

As she rushed to her daughter's side, Ms Taylor realised her daughter was not breathing.

She told MSNBC Today: 'It happened so fast, and when it happened I thought my world was just going to ... crash.

'When I got to her, she wasn’t breathing. She didn’t have a pulse or anything, so I was screaming, calling for help and asking anybody just to call the ambulance.'

Anaiah was rushed to hospital where she spent the next three weeks. She suffered a broken neck, damaged spleen, lost a kidney and broke both of her legs so badly that the left one could not be saved.

She now wears a cervical collar and faces a long and arduous recovery.

But as news of her courageous act of sisterly love spread, she received a hero's welcome when she finally came home as neighbours lined the street to cheer her for saving her sister's life.

Appearing on the Today show, Anaiah said that despite her actions, she does not feel that she deserves to be a hero.

'I feel like one, but I don't really deserve to be one. She's just my baby sister, I love her so much,' she said.



Even now, as she begins the long road to rehabilitation from the injuries that have changed her life forever, she has no second thoughts about what she did.

Ms Taylor said the most important part of her heroic daughter came out of the accident unscathed.

She said: 'Anaiah has a really, really big heart. She would have done it for someone else. But for her sister, she loved her so much she just couldn’t imagine life without her.



'And for that, I will forever be grateful to her.'



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