Twenty-four hours ago it looked like the end of the line for Samantha Garner _ but today, she's fighting her way back from the brink.
The 14-year-old from Hairini has been in a coma since June 15 after her brother Joshua's car crashed at Maungatapu. Joshua, 24, died instantly and Samantha's friend, Kayla Rose, 14, died last Monday.
Yesterday Raewyn Garner told the Bay of Plenty Times they had decided to turn off 14-year-old Samantha's life support _ until a last-minute improvement in her lungs stopped them.
Mrs Garner said Samantha was now in a stable condition.
"She had a really good night last night, she behaved herself.
"She has made the turnaround and started fighting so there's a good chance she'll continue to do that."
Whether Samantha was going to get through it or not would be seen in the next two days, Mrs Garner said, but she was optimistic.
"From day one she's always been fighting," she said.
Although Samantha's condition had not improved since the initial change in her lungs at 10.30am yesterday, neither had she deteriorated.
"She hasn't got worse, she's still about the same, stable and critical basically."
Since the family heard that Samantha's chances had improved, it had all been a bit of a blur.
"We'd all kind of come to terms with what was happening and then they told us that [she'd improved] _ we were just numb and then we realised it was good news and started looking at the positives again and just wanting to be there for her," Mrs Garner said.
Teen in coma fights for her life after crash
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