PANAMA CITY — Shamika was only 7 years old when she was struck by a truck while riding her bicycle across the street from her home.
"The wheel of the bicycle was over my right leg and the owner of the store called the ambulance and said there is a little girl in the street who is unconscious," she described in a personal post at the website, SecondChanceNWFL.org. "They rushed me to the emergency room, where they had all kinds of machines hooked up to me."
Shamika (whose last name was not given) suffered a traumatic brain injury, but after rehabilitation, she graduated from high school in 2004. She attended the Chautauqua Learn & Serve Charter School from 2005-2007, which helped her to find a job.