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Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

Grandma Has Seizure; 8-Year-Old Takes The Wheel

Reporting
Joel Thomas

CLEBURNE (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: 8-year-old Emma Hicks
KTVT / KTXA

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An eight-year-old girl in Cleburne is being given a national award for doing a good deed. While she crashed her grandmothers SUV through a fence and into a shed, it was a crash that may have saved lives.

There's still damage visible at the site where Emma Hicks ride home from school ended. "On the way home my grandma, she blacked out," the little girl explained.

Emma's grandmother, Jeannie Mendoza, has to depend on her granddaughter's memory. "I turned on the corner and I told her [Emma] I felt funny and I was going to pull over," Jeannie recalled. "I pulled over a little bit and I don't remember anything after that."

Jeannie had a seizure while driving with her granddaughter. Emma said, "And her foot was on the gas pedal and then we were going." The two were racing down the road and heading toward danger.

Something had to be done, so little Emma took action. "I had to undo my seatbelt and I had to get in the front seat and I had to steer the truck. And then we came to a turn and I couldn't make it."

Until the incident, Emma's only driving experience was on her grandfather's lawnmower and tractor. It was a rocky ride for the courageous little girl. "So we went through a metal fence, a shed, and we hit some wood. And then the car stopped, but the doors were jammed on her side and my side. And so, I opened the window and I went to go get help."

When the dust cleared, Emma had maneuvered the SUV around a telephone pole and brought the car to a crashing stop. Nearby homeowners soon came to the rescue.

Jeannie is very proud of her granddaughter. "She seems like she's more than eight years old to me; a like a little grown-up ya know. So uh, I figure she can handle just about anything," she said.

From now on, Jeannie says she won't risk getting behind the wheel again.