Teen walks across graduation stage after three weeks in coma

Walking across the stage to receive their high school diploma is an important moment for any teen, but it was a truly special occasion for Caytie Gascoigne and her family. The 17-year-old high school senior spent three weeks in a coma following a car crash no one was sure she would survive.

Gascoigne was driving to her after-school job last December when she was hit head-on by an SUV. She was left with a traumatic brain injury, as well as a broken back, neck, pelvis, legs and sternum. Doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee placed her in an induced coma for 21 days, but when she awoke, she could not walk.

Determined to make a full recovery, Gascoigne set a goal -- walk across the stage at her high school graduation.

"The recovery process has definitely been long and just grueling and painful," Gascoigne told ABC News. "I just always look at it as 'I will get better. I can't stop trying.'"

In the months that followed, Gascoigne returned to school and went from needing a wheelchair, to a walker, to being able to walk on her own without even a limp. Last month, she was crowned prom queen.

"Every girls dream is to be prom queen, so just to get that I was, like, it was just awesome," she told ABC affiliate WKRN.

And this week, Gascoigne achieved her goal. With friends, family and her doctor in the audience, she walked across the stage and received her diploma to a standing ovation.

"Basically, it was a miracle," said Tom Nolan, the Riverdale High School principal. "I remember driving to hospital the night it happened, and I met with her mom and dad. Seeing where she was that day, how she's progressed to what she's done now is unbelievable. It's an inspiration to the school, to the whole community."