A year after crash, teen meets rescuer ... and learns she almost died

CRESTLINE - Sixteen-year-old Tayler Miller was leaving Colonel Crawford High School last January when the unthinkable happened. 

She was driving to her boyfriend's house in Crestline when she hit a patch of slush.

"I guess I hit something else also and I tried to overcorrect it and that's the last thing I remember," Tayler said. 

Miller's car struck a telephone pole on the driver's side, knocking her unconscious. 

She woke up in the hospital with a concussion, punctured lung, broken and dislocated elbow and a broken pelvis, said Patti Miller, Tayler's mother. 

The injuries required Miller to spend nine days at Ohio State University Hospital and 10 weeks in a wheelchair.

It was almost a lot worse. 

"We didn't know she almost died until a year later," Patti Miller said. 

Aaron Dixon saw Tayler Miller's car just after she had hit the pole. He said he doesn't know what exactly made him stop to check on her.

"My biggest thing was I wanted to see if she was conscious," he said. 

Dixon said Tayler didn't have a pulse and wasn't breathing. 

He remembered how to do CPR from a class he took a long time ago, in high school. He turned her head just a little bit to create an airway. Tayler started to cough up blood and began to breathe again.

"I was relieved, but then I really feared the worst, because of the mental picture that I still have," he said. 

He stayed with Tayler until help arrived and she went into the ambulance. 

Tayler said being in the hospital afterward was difficult and emotional. 

"Helpless. I was just so drowsy," she said. Tayler said getting back into a routine made all of the difference.

"When I could walk, it came back so natural ... Everything moves fine," she said. 

Patti Miller said that they didn't know Tayler had almost died that day until she had made a post on Facebook about how well her daughter was recovering. Dixon saw the post and reached out to the family to share his story.

Tayler and her family met Dixon on the one-year anniversary of her accident.

They also discovered that she attends the same high school as his children.

"I couldn't believe to meet her afterwards. She's such an amazing individual," Dixon said.