VIDALIA — A Vidalia child sustained fractures to her skull but is expected to make a full recovery after being struck by a car Monday.

Two-year-old Jillian Birley was playing on bicycles with her older sister Jenna, 4, Monday afternoon when her bicycle rolled backward in the family driveway and into the path of a moving vehicle, her mother Holly Birley said.

The impact threw the child halfway across the yard.

“Jenna was screaming, ‘Sissy stop,’ and tried to get her back up,” Holly Birley said. “I ran and got her up and started praying for her.”

Neighbors were quickly on the scene, and Holly said Jillian’s father, Dusty, arrived less than five minutes after the accident and rode with her in the ambulance to Natchez Regional Medical Center.

At Natchez Regional, the family was informed that Jillian had one fracture in her skull, and Holly said she was transported to University Medical Center in Jackson to make sure there was no internal bleeding around her brain.

At UMC, doctors told the family that Jillian didn’t have any brain damage, but that she had a fracture in the back of her skull and one running left from her eyebrow into her hairline, her mother said.

Doctors are also waiting for MRI results to see if she has any ligament damage in her neck.

“She looks bad, she has a really bad black eye, her left is swollen completely shut, but she is OK,” Holly Birley said.

For most of the day, Jillian slept, but when she woke up she sat up and started describing the room, commenting on a balloon her sister had bought her, and after approximately 30 minutes asked if she could leave, her mother said.

Doctors want to observe the patient for a few more days, but it’s just precautionary, Holly Birley said.

“It’ll take her a few weeks to recover, but she should be fine,” she said.