An 8-year-old Michigan girl is being commended for her quick thinking that led to her helping save her 79-year-old great-grandmother nearly two weeks ago.
Mariah said her great-grandmother Patricia Lynch had picked her up from school and headed to drop her off at her West Bloomfield home on Jan. 11, something she'd done before. After they pulled up to the driveway of Mariah's home, Lynch got out of the car, a blue Chevy Equinox, while Mariah was still inside. Suddenly, things took a turn.
"She thought her car was in park but it was in reverse," Mariah told "Good Morning America." "It started moving and she tried to stop it and she fell and the tire [went] over her foot."
Mariah didn't hesitate and jumped into action, doing something she said she had seen her mom and family members do often.
"I pulled the keys out [of the ignition]," the 8-year-old said.
"I didn't know her foot was under there but I knew she could still get hurt because her body was under there," the second grader added.
Mariah then got out of the small SUV and ran to alert her mom, Porchia Lane, who was home at the time. Her call for help was caught on the family's Ring doorbell camera as she approached the front door.
"I thought it was a normal drop off and when I opened the door, I still didn't hear her screaming initially," Lane recalled. "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 found her grandmother parallel to the car and saw that her foot and leg had gotten stuck underneath but that somehow, Lynch had managed to pry herself out from under the car.
"Mariah was able to go grab a towel. We wrapped her leg up and caught the ambulance," Lane recounted.
"She really thought fast," she added.
Mariah said she felt scared and nervous when the incident occurred, but said that afterward, she and her mom were able to visit her great-grandmother at Trinity Health Oakland Hospital.
Lane said "by the grace of God," her grandmother did not suffer any broken bones but did have to get stitches and blood infusions for brusies, blisters and blood loss. Last week, the 79-year-old was able to be discharged and Lane said they plan on helping her through the next transition to physical therapy and recovery.
Lane said she feels "proud" of her daughter's quick thinking and has a message for other parents.
"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."
