Less than two weeks after she graduated from high school, honors student Sylvia M. Bogusz, 18, was struck by a car going 90 mph on the shoulder of Route 1 not far from the Charlestown line.

She spent four months in Rhode Island Hospital, unable to speak. She spent November, December and most of January at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, where she turned 19 and took her first steps with a walker.

Since Jan. 25, when she was moved to Rhode Island Rehabilitation in South Kingstown to cut down on the commute for her mother and brother, she learned to walk again, although she still requires a therapist on each side to keep her from falling. Last Thursday, she had major surgery at Rhode Island Hospital to bypass her large intestine and send bodily wastes into an ileostomy bag.

Yesterday, she walked for the first time after surgery, putting her on track to avoid pneumonia.

If all goes well, she will be able to go home Thursday, her first time home since being struck by a speeding car nine months ago.

Last Friday, a Washington County grand jury indicted the driver of that car, Heidi L. Harrall, 45, on one count of driving under the influence, serious bodily injury resulting, and one count of driving to endanger, personal injury resulting. Both are felonies.

Arraignment for Harrall, of West Side Road in South Kingstown, is set for Washington County Superior Court next Tuesday. Harrall was held at the ACI from June 23 to July 13, when she posted $10,000 cash bail, said Michael J. Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

Harrall faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, a fine of up to $5,000, and a loss of license for up to two years.

Healey said the grand jury investigation was delayed while the defense tried to block the release of the defendant’s medical records to the grand jury. The state Supreme Court denied the appeal, allowing the records into the grand jury’s hands.

Grazyna Chylinska has been at her daughter’s side every possible moment since June 23, 2007. Her son, Sebastian Bogusz, drives her to rehab or the hospital every day. He works at Metropolitan Life, and the family is surviving on his income.

“Sylvia is in a devastating stage because she is aware,” her mother said. “She’s so angry” with what happened. “She is a young woman and she has suffered so much.”

Chylinska said that word spread at Rhode Island Hospital when Bogusz returned last week. Nurses and doctors who cared for her last summer when her condition was critical and in late October when she had surgery to remove excess spinal fluid, came to see her and brought gifts.

“She’s pulling strong, every day, in Rhode Island Hospital,” Chylinska said. “She wants to go home terribly.”

She said her daughter, who is also having a “very difficult time” with her right hand, will be going to outpatient therapy at Sargent Rehabilitation Center in Warwick.

Chylinska wanted to thank the doctors, nurses and therapists who worked with her daughter, as well as those who prayed.

“Everybody’s prayers were effective,” she said. “I was asking for everybody to pray; it works. When they told us that she was not going to make it … Look at her today.”

dnaylor@projo.com