A mother was killed in a car crash on the way to the hospital, and officials saved her newborn baby from the woman’s lifeless body.
Missouri man Matt Rider, 34, was driving his wife, 26-year-old Sarah Iler, to a hospital to give birth to their daughter when a truck crashed into a Nissan SUV, which then crashed into their car on Wednesday night, officials said.
Their car was overturned and occupants were thrown from the vehicle. Iler died at the scene, the family told the Southeast Missourian.
Emergency responders rushed to give the woman CPR to save her baby, who was delivered via a C-section at Saint Francis Medical Center, Inside Edition reported.
The baby, named Maddyson, was born at 4 pounds and 15 ounces. The paper said the child was initially in critical condition and was placed on a ventilator but has since been able to breathe. On Friday, she was out of critical condition, but it’s unclear if the child sustained brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.
“She is continuing to make small improvements,” a relative wrote on a GoFundMe page, which added: “Sarah didn’t have life insurance which makes this much harder. Due to that, we are having to come up with the money to fund her funeral. We are trying to collect $10,000 to pay for the funeral and expenses for Maddyson.”
The post added: “She was the BEST sister you could ask for. She was always willing to help anyone that she could. She was always there with a shoulder to cry on and listened to everything. She was always willing to do anything crazy to make you laugh. Anyone who knows her knows she had a smile on her face.”
Iler will be missed “by many,” the post added, saying her daughter “will have lots of stories and fun memories shared with her as she grows up.”
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