FOX 5 Special: Left for Dead

17-year-old Kristina Sales said her memory about January 13, 2009 is non-existent.

"I don't remember anything. All I remember is the weekend before and I just remember waking up in the hospital," said Sales.

Sales she did remember fighting to live. "I remember a couple of my therapists and I remember hearing that I had a lot of visitors but I could only remember my last visitor," said Sales.

Sales was on her way to Chamblee High School the morning of the attack and was left for dead in the middle of the road.

Sales' mother said she had just dropped the teen off across the street from a bus stop, but Kristina Sales never made it. A car came out of nowhere and hit her.

"Had he gone straight, he wouldn't have hit her, but the car, and I say this, I don't believe it was intentional, but the car, it went over to hit her and when it hit her, she went up in the air," said Sales' mother Chanda Shannon.

Shannon said after the car struck her daughter, the driver drove off. "He stopped, the man stopped, and he looked and he waited and then he drove off."

Sales was rushed to Grady Hospital and the prognosis was not good.

"They didn't think she was [going to] do well. They didn't think she, they were actually saying to me, they suggested nursing homes for her," said Sales.

Sales had a broken pelvis, fractured vertebrae in her neck and a severe brain injury. The teen was in a coma for nearly a month.

"Though I do know there were a lot of people to help me, coming out of a coma, the only people I remember [were] my mom and my dad," said Sales.

Nine months later, Sales' parents are still by her side. Sales' mother makes sure she takes her medicine daily and helps her perform eye exercises to restore her sight.

Sales is back at Chamblee High School, even anchoring the schools news program.

Though her recovery so far is remarkable, Sales still has quite a road ahead of her and the teen regularly attends physical and speech therapy.

"She's come a long way, she's a very lucky girl," said physical therapist Katherine Schaffer.

There are some challenges associated with Sales' type of brain injury. Sales' short term memory, doing things in order and being able to tune out distractions have suffered. Sales' sessions in therapy are geared toward helping her will all of the challenges.

The driver who hit Sales turned himself in the day after the accident. A grand jury indicted 48-year-old Virgil Harvey on felony hit-and-run charges.

Sales and her mother said they prayed for him but focus on the lessons they've learned and the teen's future.

"I want people to believe that there is hope and just keep believing because they told me that she wouldn't make it. They said she wouldn't make it and she did," said Shannon. "I believe that everything happens for a reason. If he said it, he'll do it and I do believe that god will make a way."