Twenty-seven-year-old Desiree Strout of Canaan, Maine, was driving to the hospital on Monday to deliver her third child when she hit a patch of black ice on the road. This caused her to lose control of her car, careen off the road, and roll to a stop atop an icy pond, where rescuers pulled her out of the vehicle.
Strout died in the ambulance on her way to the hospital. Miraculously, however, doctors were able to deliver her baby boy through an emergency Cesarean section. He remains in critical condition, People Magazine reports.
Police chief says crash that killed pregnant 27-year-old caused by black ice https://t.co/RD11R05AZJ pic.twitter.com/0mSiMQelbQ
— CentralMaine.com 💻 (@centralmenews) January 23, 2018
The homeschooling mom was accompanied by her 29-year-old husband, Harry Weeks, and their 8-year-old daughter, who both survived the crash. Weeks remains in critical condition after suffering a punctured lung and lacerated liver, while their daughter reportedly did not suffer any life-threatening injuries.
“The times that I was around her, she was a very loving mother,” said Franny MacMichael Clark, a family friend of Strout, according to Central Maine News. “Her oldest daughter is such a smart little cookie and I know Desiree home-schooled her kids, so you could tell, it was evident, that she spent a lot of time with them and teaching them. She was a sweetheart.”
