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This is the moment a one-year-old girl miraculously took her first steps after being nearly paralyzed in a horrific car accident.
Alice Polinska was sitting in the back seat of her mother's car in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, in December when a driver suspected of drug use plowed head-on into her with a combined impact of 180km/h.
Her injured mother Magda pulled Alice and her three-year-old sister Maya from the wreckage before ambulances took them to hospital.
A&E doctors at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff found Alice's neck was broken and feared she could die.
Her spine was also severely damaged, leaving her unable to move the left side of her body. Medics who put her in a coma feared the paralysis could be permanent even if she survived.
Doctors told Ms Polinska the chance of a child Alice's age surviving the injuries was so small that there were very few halo tractions - a device they used to lengthen her spine - at her size.
But just three months later, after hours of physical therapy and mobility training, Alice has defied doctors' expectations to take her first steps.
Alice Polinska, one, miraculously takes her first steps after a horrific car accident that left her almost paralyzed in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Alice was given a tracheotomy and doctors explained that the chance of a child her age surviving the injuries was so small that they struggled to find a halo traction - a device used to lengthen the spine (pictured) - small enough for her
The heartwarming footage was filmed on March 3rd.
Ms Polinska said: “It has been the worst three months of our family's life, especially as we have had to spend so much time apart at a time when we just want to be together.
"But there were also so many miracles. We heard so many times how lucky we all were to be alive after such an accident, and even more so that Alice survived such a terrible spinal injury."
When Alice was first admitted to the hospital, doctors found that she had fractured her spine between the first and second vertebrae - in her neck.
She also suffered bruising around her spinal cord.
After recovering from her own injuries in the emergency room the next morning - a broken wrist and face and bruised hips - Ms. Polinska went to the pediatric intensive care unit, where Alice was being treated.
She was told her daughter might never walk again because of the spinal injury that had caused damage to the left side of her body.
Her injured mother Magda (left) watched as Alice and her sister Maya (pictured together on the right), three, were taken to hospital by ambulance after she pulled them from the wrecked car
Alice, from Cwmbran, South Wales, was transferred to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff for rehabilitation
Alice couldn't breathe on her own and doctors gave her a tracheostomy before explaining she would need dangerous surgery to insert rods into her back.
Mrs Polinska said: “They had told my husband and I that the operation was extremely risky, but we knew it was the only option if Alice was to have any hope of a normal life.
“The list the surgeon had written of the terrible things that could happen was so long it almost took up the page.
"By signing this piece of paper, we agreed to a surgery that our daughter may never come back from. It is by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life."
The operation was a success and Alice was transferred to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff for rehabilitation.
Ms Polinska said: “It is like a gift to have this wonderful hospital with so many specialties for Alice.
“I was so scared that Alice would be paralyzed when this first happened, but the physio team came every day and boosted mine and Alice's confidence until she could sit and even stand again.
"Now you can't even tell the difference between her right side and her left side. We're so grateful to all of them for what they've done."
Her other daughter, Maya, suffered bruising and a broken arm, but was otherwise OK after the accident, with both girls sitting in the back of the car.
A 39-year-old man from Monmouthshire has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, drugs and possession of a controlled drug of Class C.
He has since been released under investigation.