INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The blow dart that went through 7-year-old Olivia’s nose was less than a millimeter from taking her life. Now she is walking, talking, and even doing gymnastics, just a month and a half after the accident.

The blow dart went through Olivia’s nose and landed near the back of her head and neck. It hit bone but missed her vertebral artery and nerves by less than a millimeter.

Dr. Mitesh Shah, an IU Health Neurosurgeon, removed the dart from Olivia’s head.

“The vertebral artery supplies the brain stem and all of the critical vital structures that allow us to breathe and have a heartbeat and so forth,” Shah said.

Shah worked alongside Dr. Laurie Ackerman, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Riley Hospital for Children in downtown Indianapolis. Two otolaryngology surgeons were the other half of the team.

Dr. Satyan Sreenath is an otolaryngology surgeon at Riley and IU Health Methodist Hospitals who did the drilling to help get the dart out of Olivia’s head, while Dr. Matthew Partain is an otolaryngology surgeon at Riley.

The doctors say Olivia is lucky to be alive.

“I mean, when you want statistics, they should buy about 10 lottery tickets,” Shah said. “I’m telling you that was very fortunate where that ended up and where that stopped.”

Olivia was shot by the blow dart at a friend’s house, so her mom received a call that her daughter was injured. Jessica, Olivia’s mom, was almost unphased by the event.

She is an intensive care unit nurse, primarily working with neurology patients, and she knew not to remove the dart. The Riley doctors say that was a key to saving Olivia.

“I knew something wasn’t right. I went, I saw, I put her in the car and took her to the emergency room,” Jessica said. “And that was just — there was really no thinking. It was just autopilot.”

Jessica, her husband Philip, and Olivia live in northwest Indiana. Olivia had to be transported from a local hospital in their community to Riley while the tornado sirens were going off on Aug. 5, so they had to use ground transportation instead of an IU helicopter.

The family has decided not to share their last name or exact town in order to protect their privacy and the privacy of the friend who had the blown dart. The family says it was a freak accident and not done with malicious intent.

The complex surgery was further complicated by Olivia’s small size. The doctors accessed the dart through Olivia’s nose and had about two centimeters in the back of her head to work on getting the dart out.

“And in kids, it’s especially tight from an anatomical standpoint,” Partain said. “It was very important for us to be able to visualize everything completely. And then know we could get our instruments safely back to where we were able to operate.”

It has been just over six weeks and Olivia does not have neurological deficits after the reconstruction process. She is already back in gymnastics after her team cleared her for physical activities. The surgeons say she will not have any lasting damage to her nose as she grows.

Olivia’s parents said her brothers, Noah, 9, and Aden, 7, helped to take care of Olivia while she had restrictions to what she was allowed to do while she healed.

Olivia says she may even become a doctor since all of this is behind her, but for now, she is just concentrating on finishing the second grade.