A Canadian paramedic responding to a horrific car crash treated a passenger who was injured beyond recognition—only learning the girl’s identity hours later.

Jayme Erickson was called to the crash north of Calgary on Nov. 15 and sat with a seriously injured girl who was extricated from the car and taken to hospital, where she died. She was unrecognizable because of injuries.

It wasn’t until Erickson got home at the end of the day that she was met by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, who told her the patient was her 17-year-old daughter, Montana.

Erickson shared her grief with reporters late Tuesday, describing her daughter as a success at everything she set her mind to, an avid swimmer who had aspirations of becoming a lawyer.

“She was a fighter and she fought until the day that she died and she was beautiful. She was so beautiful. If she ever put an effort into anything she would always succeed at it,” said Erickson at an Airdrie firehall with family, paramedics, police officers and firefighters standing behind her in a show of support.

According to her colleagues, Erickson was the first person on the scene. She knew the girl was in trouble and sat there until she was extricated and transported to hospital by air ambulance, still unaware of who it was.

“On her way back Erickson expressed her grief and frustration to her partner, knowing that later a family would likely lose their daughter, sister and grandchild.

“On entering the room, to her horror, she found the girl that she had sat with in the back of the crumpled vehicle keeping alive, so the family could say goodbye, and due to the extent of her injuries was unrecognizable, was Jayme’s own daughter,” “Jayme unknowingly was keeping her own daughter alive.”