CATH NEWS REPORT: Peter Hill feared his three-year-old daughter was killed when he rolled his 22-seater bus on top of her in a queue for petrol on the NSW South Coast. But Claire - who was kissed as a baby by Pope Benedict at Randwick - escaped serious harm, said a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Her father struggled to find an explanation for the survival of his youngest child - who was kissed by the pontiff at Randwick in Sydney while in the midst of a throng of the faithful.Claire, who was lodged under the dual rear wheels of the four-tonne vehicle, was to be sent home from hospital with little more than grazes and minor bruising.
"I couldn't think anything other than a guardian angel was holding that bus up and keeping the weight off her," Mr Hill said.
"I jumped in the driver's seat and just rolled forward," he said. "And Claire opened the door and hopped out of the car, and the next thing I know, someone's banging on the bus. I went to look and saw Claire lying underneath the two back wheels, pinned to the ground. At that moment I thought: 'God, I've killed her.' "
His wife, Sue Hill, a mother of 11, was inclined to believe in the power of prayer.
"I had put a miraculous medal [of Mother Mary] on her just an hour before," she said. As Claire lay at the Woolworths service station in Nowra, Mrs Hill told her to pray to Jesus and Mother Mary.
The tyre marks were yesterday visible on her tiny abdomen, but she astounded her parents and medical specialists by surviving the ordeal without internal injuries, broken bones or lasting physical damage of any kind.
Claire, red-eyed but smiling and talkative, she said it was her dad and God that saved her.
The Children's Hospital said it was hopeful Claire would make a full recovery.
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