A father makes a choice to give his daughter a chance at a better life.  You’re about to meet a young girl whose story magnifies the pain of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  We follow a father as he makes a heart wrenching medical decision; a decision that could silence this young girl forever.

The road of life is filled with uncertainty, the twists and turns are like the choices we make that shape our destiny.

Five-and-a-half years ago, Mark Huber learned the power of a choice with one phone call.  His 19-month old daughter was hurt.

“Her grandmother (called), telling me to get to Brackenridge as quick as I could,” remembered Huber.

Police say Jessica Huber’s mother ran a red light on U.S. Highway 290 in Austin, colliding with a flat bed truck.  Grainy pictures are all that’s left of the crash that left the passenger side of the Mazda compressed like an accordion, the very place Jessica was sitting.

“They told me initially that she had a zero percent chance of survival,” said Mark.

Her CT scan looked like a roadmap of fractures.  Police say this was the result of Jessica’s mother, Reyna Noble, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

But if anything could hurt Mark more it was this:

“She has no remorse, none whatsoever,” said Mark, of Noble.  “From the very beginning she wanted a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order (on Jessica.)" 

In that moment, Mark decided he would do whatever it took to help his daughter survive.  Surgeons worked to repair her skull and remove an abscess on her brain.  During her 70 days in intensive care, Jessica’s body swelled with the toxins of septic shock.  At times death seemed in her reach.

But her suffering ended with a miracle.

If the road to happiness could be measured in smiles, Jessica Huber has reached her destination.  On her seventh birthday, the joys of pizza and play mask the scars of tragedy: blindness in her left eye, the brace that allows her to walk, and beneath the blonde locks, a growing infection threatening her skull, brain and sinuses.  As this little girl celebrates, more than five years after the crash, her father must make another choice that could silence her laugh forever.

Mark chose to have Jessica’s skull and sinuses rebuilt.  Without this surgery, doctors believe the infection behind her blue eyes could soon be fatal.  But letting go is not easy.

“Be a good girl, alright?  I love you with all my heart,” said Mark to his daughter just before the surgery.

“I do, too,” said Jessica.

“You know in the back of your mind and in your heart the danger that exists with her,” said Dr. Patrick Kelly, Jessica’s surgeon at Dell Children’s Medical Center.  “Anytime you're talking about open brain surgery, you're taking, in my opinion, enormous risk.  In Jessica's case, she had such severe brain swelling at the time of the initial operation that she didn't get an opportunity to treat her facial fractures."

And they must address the infection, as well.  Surgeons must remove infected bond and mold transplanted bone from her hip to rebuild her skull and fill in the sinus cavities.

“You see that this orbit is a little bit smaller because she has these small holes in this area,” said Dr. Kelly.

And not far from the scalpel and steel, the clock seems to be stuck on pause for a worried father.

“The nightmare never goes away,” said Mark.  “It's the physical pain, the emotional pain.  It never goes away."

And neither do the questions, because if it wasn’t for a mother’s choice, the seven-year-old laying on the operating table would instead be in school.

“It's criminal, pure and simple, it's criminal,” said Mark.  “No child should ever have to suffer like Jessica has, and will continue to do so." 

Three hours into the surgery, Mark gets an update.  The news is good.  Jessica is doing well, but it’s far from over.

“Hopefully this will be the last major surgery she'll ever have to have,” said Mark. 

Thirteen hours from the first incision, the surgery is complete.  After only two blood transfusions, she is stable.

“She has overcome things that I don't believe many people watching could overcome,” said Mark.

And just nine days after the surgery, sutures may crisscross her head, but a smile lights up her face.  Jessica is healthy and ready to go home.  But, she is still swollen.  She will also have an antibiotic IV for several weeks and must stay out of the sun.

“To go from the point she was at to where she is today, is nothing short of a miracle,” said Mark.

It’s a miracle that this father and daughter recognize and cherish.

“This is the best feeling I've had in five-and-a-half years,” said Mark.  “For the first time, she is going to be able to come home and not worry about being sick."

So this family’s road to life is now clearly paved with gratitude.  The pain of the past is permanently in their rear view mirror; their future is filled with hope.

Jessica’s mother is on probation for felony reckless endangerment of a child.  She will never see her daughter again.

To help Jessica Huber with her medical needs, you can make a donation to:  

Jessica Huber Special Needs Trust in c/o Smith Barney

301 Congress Suite 1400

Austin, TX  78701