Her wide eyes and full-of-life smile show all the vibrancy a 4-year-old can have. But a telltale scar behind her right ear tells a different story.

“This girl was well on her way to dying,” neurosurgeon Dr. Kevin Zitnay said the day staples were removed from the incision he made to save Hailey’s life.

When they gather for Christmas on Saturday, Hailey’s family will celebrate Zitnay’s very special present to the family.

But only 11 days ago, they weren’t certain they’d have anything to celebrate.

Hailey’s grandma, Judy Pesco, enthusiastically retells the story of how God guided Zitnay to help her family.

On Dec. 13, a Monday, “me and Hailey’s momma were at Brendel’s Auction. Hailey had gone to get her hair cut and she fell backwards down two steps. But she hit her head on the concrete,” the grandmother said.

“The babysitter brought Hailey to us at the auction, and we noticed the back of her head was squishy instead of hard,” she went on.

Hailey’s mother, Jennifer Lane, tried to call the pediatrician, but once Hailey vomited blood, Judy and Jennifer knew something was wrong.

“She wasn’t whiny, she wasn’t nothing,” Judy said of the little girl’s demeanor. “But our family has never taken head injuries lightly. I knew something was not right.”

Dr. Zitnay explained that Hailey had suffered an epidural hematoma, a blood clot that began to form between her skull and the thin film that covers the brain, the dura.

“Usually we don’t deal with pediatric trauma at Rowan,” Zitnay said. “We don’t have a pediatric intensive care unit.”

But Hailey had slipped into a coma when the ambulance entered the hospital’s parking lot. “It was foggy and they couldn’t airlift her to Baptist, so they were going to drive her there,” the girl’s grandmother said.

Hailey’s vital signs began to change and Zitnay said he knew Hailey would never make the trip to Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center.

“Dr. Zitnay came out and said, ‘Here, sign this and let me save your daughter’s life,’ ” Jennifer Lane said. “I just lost it. I didn’t hear anything else anyone said to me. I felt so dumb for not expecting the worse. She just had a goose egg on her head. I really didn’t expect it.”

So he cut Hailey’s skull open, cleaned out the blood clot and sewed up the broken artery. “Within a couple of hours, she started waking up from the coma,” Zitnay said. Grandmother Judy Pesco said nurses told her Hailey was the first child in Rowan’s Intensive Care Unit in 25 years.

“We knew she was going to be OK after the second time the doctor asked her how she felt. ‘I’m fine’ she said. She was getting aggravated,” Pesco said, smiling.

“The doctor went around telling everyone to go see his miracle baby,” Pesco added. “It truly was a miracle. He said he would like to take the credit, that his skills saved her, but he told us this was nothing short of a miracle.”

On Wednesday, two days after her fall and surgery, “Hailey was fully alert, up and eating. Thursday morning she was running around,” Pesco said.

“In older people there is a whole lot more room in the skull,” Zitnay said. “But in children, the brain is growing” and there is very little excess room.

“Any blow to the head that is sufficient to cause a brief loss of consciousness or if you hear the skull fracture, you need to have your child examined,” he advises.

Signs of a traumatic head injury also appear in a persistent headache, difficulty with vision, nausea, if the child becomes sleepy, has difficulty with balance or feels dizzy or seems sluggish or dull, instead of bright or active.

“It’s not everyday you get to save someone life, especially a child,” said Zitnay, who began practicing at Rowan Regional last August. “It just filled me with a joy.”

But Zitnay did much more than perform the surgery, Hailey’s family said.

“He cleared the way for Jennifer (Lane, Hailey’s mom) to be treated like a human being,” Judy Pesco said. Lane did not have health insurance to cover Hailey, and Pesco said many hospitals won’t even see you if you don’t have insurance.

“He made sure my daughter (Lane) got a meal every time Hailey did,” Judy said.

Lane said she wants to express her greatest appreciation for everyone who helped see Hailey through the crisis, from rescue workers, to nurses, friends and people she didn’t even know. Lane is grateful Hailey will spend Christmas with her brother, Robert, and her two sisters, Courtney and Brittnay.