When 19-year-old Vanessa Carrillo woke up Wednesday morning in an Albuquerque hospital room after hours of surgery to save her life, she had a simple request.

"First thing she said was she asked one of the nurses if she could have a Dr. Pepper," said Desiree Carrillo, Vanessa's 21-year-old sister. "That was all she really wanted when she woke up. And later, she was telling us not to worry about her. I don't think she liked seeing all of us so worried. That's how she is."

And while Vanessa Carrillo's 4-foot-11, 92-pound body may now have a torn muscle in her arm, a broken orbital bone in her face and numerous broken bones in both legs, her spirit is strong. Doctors say she should be able to walk again, and they've told her family that Vanessa, the youngest of four daughters, may be back at her La Cienega home by Christmas.

That's hard to imagine for some who saw the crash scene early Tuesday morning on Interstate 25 north of the Cerrillos Road exit. Investigators spent nearly 12 hours Tuesday sifting through the wreckage of the ambulance that the 2009 Santa Fe High School graduate and certified emergency medical technician was driving at 2:24 a.m. when hit head-on by a Nissan Altima reportedly traveling at more than 100 miles an hour.

The driver of the late-model Altima, identified Wednesday by Santa Fe police as 26-year-old Kylene Holmes of El Paso, died at the scene. Police on Tuesday had reported the woman's age as 27, but she died less than two weeks shy of her 27th birthday on Dec. 26.

A 38-year-old passenger in the Altima, Jennifer Michelle Belvin, 38, of Oceanside, Calif., is recovering at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said investigators suspect alcohol was a factor in the collision, but will wait until autopsy and toxicology reports for Holmes are conducted by the state Office of the Medical Investigator before making a final determination.

Investigators are looking into reports that Holmes had been drinking in Santa Fe earlier in the evening, according to Wheeler. Police believe that at the time of the crash, Holmes and Belvin were headed to Albuquerque, where Holmes has family.

Emergency dispatch logs indicate the first of four calls about a wrong-way driver on northbound I-25 came at 2:17 a.m. That driver, Joe Mascarenas of Ribera, was driving home from his custodial job at The New Mexican when the Altima brushed the side of his van, leaving scratches with light-blue paint.

Mascarenas told police he encountered the wrong-way driver near the Pecos/Glorieta exit on I-25, nearly 20 miles away from the crash site.

Wheeler said Tuesday night that he was not sure if Holmes was an insured motorist, and he didn't identify the Altima's registered owner.

Members of the rescue community have been rallying around Vanessa Carrillo. La Cienega Volunteer Fire Chief James Valencia has established a fund at First Community Bank in Santa Fe.

Desiree Carrillo said the family appreciates the support, adding, "We'll worry about the bills later."

Vanessa Carrillo has worked at Rocky Mountain EMS for two years. On the night of the crash, she and a co-worker, Jennifer Guhl, had transported a patient from Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to the patient's Albuquerque home. Carrillo had dropped off Guhl shortly before the accident and was heading to the Rocky Mountain EMS facility in Santa Fe to drop off the ambulance and get her own car.

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, which regulates transportation services such as Rocky Mountain EMS, is looking into the case, public information officer Gerald Garner said Wednesday. He said he couldn't discuss specifics of the ongoing investigation, which is routine after such an incident.

When asked about insurance coverage carried by the company, Rocky Mountain owner Ed Little declined to respond, saying, "I'm not going to comment on that."

"Who would even ask that question?" he told a reporter. "That's a horrible question."

Desiree Carrillo said her younger sister loves her job as an EMT and working for Rocky Mountain EMS.

Family and friends said that passion was aroused when Vanessa Carrillo was 15 and her mother, Elizabeth Carrillo, died of cancer. Vanessa Carrillo saw the dedication and attention

, paramedics, nurses and doctors gave to trying to help her mother.

"That's when she decided it was what she wanted to do," Desiree Carrillo said.

For much of Wednesday, there were as many as 12 people at a time trying to visit Vanessa Carrillo in her room at University Hospital in Albuquerque, where she had been airlifted early Tuesday.

Her father, Larry Carrillo, and three older sisters have been by her side since early Tuesday.

"She's still in a lot of pain, but she's the type of girl that might be shy at first, but then she'll start talking a mile a minute and talk your ear off," Desiree Carrillo said. "We know that's what she's going to start doing here when she's a little more rested."

As far as returning to work, Desiree Carrillo said she has no doubt that is what her little sister will one day try to do.

"She's tiny and nobody thinks she can even lift a gurney, but she does," Desiree Carrillo said. "That's what she has a passion to do and she's the type of girl that if she sets her mind to it, she's going to accomplish it. That's it."

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.