The mother of an 8-year-old girl who assisted in the rescue of her great-grandmother after she became trapped under a car has expressed pride in her daughter, saying she “just had to think fast” in the aftermath of the incident. Patricia Lynch, 79, picked up her great-granddaughter Mariah from school and dropped her off at her home in West Bloomfield, according to Good Morning America.
And, while Lynch’s school run was nothing out of the ordinary, something troubling occurred after she arrived at Mariah’s house that day. According to reports, the minor was in the vehicle when her great-grandmother fell after stepping out.
“She thought her car was in park but it was in reverse,” Mariah recalled. “It started moving and she tried to stop it and she fell and the tire [went] over her foot.”
Mariah stated that when she realized what had happened, she immediately did something she had observed her mother and other relatives doing on a regular basis. “I took the keys out of the ignition,” she explained. “I didn’t realize her foot was under there, but I knew she could still get hurt because her body was.”
Porchia Lane, Mariah’s mother, was inside at the time of the incident. So, as soon as Mariah got out of the car, she called her mother. The moment the 8-year-old ran towards the house to seek assistance was captured on the family’s Ring doorbell camera.
“I thought it was a normal drop off and when I opened the door, I still didn’t hear her screaming initially,” Lane said. “I thought, ‘Well, maybe my grandmother was having a hard time pulling up the driveway’ because it’s a little hill. As I got closer to the car, that’s when I began to hear Mariah scream and I saw my grandmother’s shoes in the middle of the driveway. I couldn’t even see her yet. So I was just in disbelief.”
Lane said she noticed her grandmother had managed to free herself after her leg and foot got stuck under the car. “Mariah was able to go grab a towel. We wrapped her leg up and caught the ambulance,” she told Good Morning America. “She really thought fast.”
Mariah described herself as terrified and nervous at the time of the incident. She did, however, pay her great-grandmother a visit in the hospital later. Lynch, fortunately, did not break any bones, according to Lane, who added that she received stitches and blood infusions after suffering bruises, blisters, and blood loss. The 79-year-old was finally released last week.
“Know that your kids are always paying attention. I really talked to Mariah and instilled in her to just follow her heart and make right decisions,” Lane said. “It just makes me proud that she just was able to think fast and she probably was more calm than me in this situation because I would have been frantic.”