Image Credit: FILE PHOTO
March 21, 2017 - 12:35 PM
MERRITT - An Interior family has lost their newborn baby after the two-week old suffered a suspected cardiac arrest on the Coquihalla Highway yesterday.
Merritt RCMP Sgt. Norm Flemming says the family was heading to B.C. Children's hospital in Vancouver, March 20, when the two-week old child went into medical distress.
"The child was with its family and they were on their way to Vancouver," Flemming says. "What occurred... yesterday was unrelated to why they were going to Children's Hospital."
Flemming says because of where the family's vehicle was located on the highway, the road needed to be shut down in both directions to make sure the air ambulance could safely land.
"Unfortunately that required our northbound and southbound drivers to have patience," Flemming says. “There was no accident. Everyone was driving by expecting to see a big crash.”
Flemming says the child died on the way to Royal Inland Hospital.
“It was completely unexpected," Flemming said. "The parents and the family are of course devastated. It’s one of those things that just catches everybody off guard. Our hearts go out to the family… it’s just a tragic incident.”
Drive B.C. issued an alert yesterday, March 21, shortly before 5 p.m. warning drivers that the Coquihalla was closed in both directions between Merritt and Hope at exit 256. It reopened shortly before 6 p.m.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Ashley Legassic or call 250-319-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2017