ORLANDO, Fla. -- Thirteen-year-old Aujia Ivory, who was hit by a car on Ponkan Road in Apopka a week ago, had words of grateful praise on Wednesday for the officer she believes saved her.

The teen is still in pain. She spent a week and a half in the hospital and is finally well enough to be home. She rests her bruised and broken body in an oversized leather recliner surrounded by get-well wishes.

"It's been great coming home, having so much support that I have," she said. "I'm doing better than what was happening at first. Like, I'm still in a little pain, but I am doing better."

It's unclear how long the Wolf Lake Middle School student was left on the side of Ponkan Road after a driver hit her Nov. 9. An Orange County deputy noticed her in a dark ditch and called for help.

"I want to say thank you to the officer who found me because if he didn't find me, no telling what would have happened," she said.

Police said the man who hit her told them that he didn't stop because he thought he had hit a tree branch. He has been identified as 44-year-old Paul Wills Jr. Police said he drove home and had a neighbor drive him back to the scene to see what he had hit. Wills has a criminal record in Utah, police said.

"He said he thought he hit a tree branch," said Sharese Jones, the teen's mom. "That's impossible, no way. My daughter is 5 feet 10 inches, 190 pounds and just from the damage alone, he knows good and well he didn't hit a tree."

Wills was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily injury and is out on bond. No one answered his door Wednesday night.

"Hopefully, he'll do some time or be punished for this," Jones said. "I just don't want him to get away with it."

Aujia hopes to soon trade the remote control for school and volleyball. She would not go into much detail about what happened that night on the advice of her lawyer. Her mother said investigators found pieces of her daughter's hair stuck in Wills' broken windshield.

Investigators said they do not believe Wills was under the influence that night and he likely will be extradited back to Utah to face drug charges.