None — A 9-year-old girl is being hailed as a hero for saving her younger sister's life.
Anaiah Rucker bore most of the brunt when a pickup truck hit the girls as they raced across a street in Madison to catch a school bus. She almost died but was released from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite on Wednesday.
Channel 2's Tom Jones talked to Anaiah about her heroic act.
"I love her more than anything," she said, nearly in tears in her hospital room.
She was talking about her 5-year-old sister, Camry.
"I pushed my sister out of the way so she wouldn't get hit," Anaiah said.
Last month, in Madison, Ga., about an hour and a half east of Atlanta, Anaiah and her sister were walking across a street to catch the school bus.
It was raining. Anaiah had a hooded sweatshirt that may have obscured her view.
"I couldn't hardly see," Anaiah said.
She looked both ways and looked again and thought the coast was clear, she said.
Anaiah and her sister stepped into the road.
"I saw the truck and I was like, 'No,'" Andrea Taylor, the children's mother said.
Taylor, who was standing on her porch, said what Anaiah did next probably saved her young sister's life.
"I seen my daughter kinda snatch my 5-year-old back, and if it wasn't for that, my 5-year-old would have ... I don't think she would have made it," Taylor said.
That's because a pickup truck slammed into the girls. The truck driver wasn't charged.
Anaiah bore most of the impact since she shoved her younger sister out of the way. She suffered a broken neck, lost a kidney, has spleen damage and broke both legs.
"The left leg wasn't getting any blood flow so they had to amputate the left leg," Taylor said.
Anaiah has her good days, and then she has her bad moments where she suddenly breaks down into tears.
That's when her mother puts it all in perspective.
"It's OK," she told her. "Because your sister is alive because you saved her."
Anaiah said she did what she did for one reason.
"I thought she was too young. She's my sister. I love her."
A fund has been set up for Anaiah Rucker at: United Bank - Acct # 6457273 Regions Bank - Acct# 0085210986 Anyone with questions can e-mail the family at angeline_davis@bellsouth.net.
When Anaiah was released on Wednesday, police cars and fire trucks from Madison escorted her back home. Wednesday was declared Anaiah Rucker Day in Madison.
She planned to stop by the schools, and students will show their appreciation for her heroic act.
On Saturday, a barbecue fundraiser will be held at Morgan County High School to help defray the cost of her medical care. Her mother said her home will have to be remodeled to make it handicap-accessible. She'll have to take Anaiah back and forth from Madison to Atlanta for therapy, and that will be difficult because her car was recently repossessed, Taylor said. But Taylor remains in good spirits despite it all.
"I know God's gonna see us through," she said.