Two Utah sisters recovered after being hit by drunk driver in Arizona

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona — Two sisters who were hit by a suspected drunk driver in Arizona while they were traveling to Utah are making a miraculous recovery after spending weeks in the ICU. It was Friday night, November 22 of last year when Sabrina Wilhite, 25, and her sister Jessica, 22, were hit by a drunk driver while traveling on a rural highway outside of Flagstaff Arizona. The two were heading to Utah to see a brother leave on a mission and to visit family for the holidays. Both sisters ended up at the ICU in Flagstaff, near death, with multiple broken bones and internal bleeding. Miraculously Jessica Wilhite ended up dancing her way out of the hospital just before Christmas. “That was my goal. I told my parents, ‘oh I'm going to walk out of here, no actually I'm going to dance out of here,” Jessica Wilhite said. “They really didn't think I would make it through the night [after the accident]. I lost a lot of blood. I had a lot of internal damage, they didn't think they would be able to fix it. Knowing where I am now is just a miracle every timeline they gave us, every expectation I've surpassed.”On January 9, Sabrina Wilhite was well enough to leave the ICU in Flagstaff and be moved to a skilled nursing facility in Salt Lake called, St. Joseph Villa. “They had to use the jaws of life to pull me out, and my body was stuck to the dashboard of the car,” Sabrina said from her hospital bed at St. Joseph Villa. Sabrina's injuries were so bad she lost her left arm just above the elbow. And her road to recovery is still a long and painful one. “Working on the ability to move my arms, and legs again, to speak again, to eat again, to breath properly,” Sabrina Wilhite said. But she's alive. “It's been an absolute miracle. Just the fact that I'm here. The fact that God was able to save my life. I shouldn’t be here today, but I am,” Sabrina Wilhite said. Sadly this is a family that has spent years involved in Utah's Zero Fatalities Campaign, and now they are on the other side of it. “I've preached that for decades and now to have it hit my family has just been crushing to us,” said the sisters' father, Brent Wilhite. “They are living proof that seatbelts save lives. I’m grateful they learned to wear their seatbelts, but I wish the other person would not have been drinking and get behind the wheel.” Now Wilhite’s message is personal. “Somebody made a bad choice and it didn't affect them it affected me, and there is nothing I can do about it, and it is so preventable,” Sabrina Wilhite said. A GoFundMe* has been set up to help the family with medical expenses.

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