13-year-old may never fully recover after getting hit by SUV

It’s possible she may never get the feeling back in some of the nerves in her leg.

“Everybody’s got to be there for her and stay as strong as she is,” he said.

EARLIER COVERAGE: Father speaks after 13-year-old hit by SUV

Kamela said before the crash, she used to spend time jumping on the family’s trampoline or playing soccer — but now she’s bound to crutches or a cane when she’s at home and a wheelchair while she’s at school.

She’s also balancing all of her pain medication, which she tries to separate with a monthly pill sorter.

“I’m only in eighth grade,” she said. “I still should be a kid, and not have to go to doctor’s every day or like, every once a week. I still should be able to do what I want to do.”

In July, Kamela, along with her family and family friends, were tubing along the Mad River on Lower Valley Pike.

While she was deflating her tube on the side of the road, she was hit by an SUV that was driven by Michael Wade.

Troopers said the SUV went left of center, and witnesses have previously told the News-Sun that the vehicle appeared to be speeding.

Kamela said she doesn’t remember the crash happening. The last thing she remembers is waking up at Miami Valley Hospital with a tube in her throat.

She would spend nearly a month between different hospital beds.

“I was confused. I didn’t really know how to comprehend it,” she said. “I had a lot of questions, but nobody really had answers.”

Wade, 39, was recently indicted on charges of aggravated vehicular assault and operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

LATEST CRIME: Dayton doctor charged with 145 felonies related to child porn

Troopers asked the public for help finding Wade, and he was picked up by the U.S. Marshal’s SOFAST Task Force and a unit from the Ohio State Highway Patrol on Tuesday in Springfield.

Wade is being held in the Clark County Jail without bond. Kamela’s dad said he plans to be at every court hearing.

“It’s gonna be a road on both ends with him going to court and her also,” he said. “We’re just gonna pray he gets the maximum of what he deserves.”

Kamela said she’s angry at the man who is accused of causing her life to change so dramatically; she also feels it’s a miracle she’s alive to talk to about it.

“Some days I’d ask myself why I’m still here because I shouldn’t have been,” she said. “But for some reason God kept me here — and I want to know what that reason is.”