Last week, LifeNews reported on the tragic story of 30-year-old Jodie Guthrie, who was killed in an automobile accident. Guthrie was hit by a vehicle and killed while she was standing outside a drug store. Thankfully, doctors were able to save her unborn baby, who was born alive after the accident.
According to news reports, an elderly driver who may have hit the gas instead of the brake, jumped the curb and pinned Guthrie to the wall of the store’s building. Doctors delivered her nearly full-term baby.
George Weatherwalk, Guthrie’s fiance’, is speaking out about his future wife’s death. He says the last time he saw her, she had surprised him by setting up a playpen and organizing supplies for their baby, who was due in two weeks.
He aid he never expected to be sitting in a hospital knowing his wife had been killed and his baby born early.
“This wasn’t supposed to be this way,” Weatherwalk said Thursday. “He wasn’t supposed to be born like this. We were supposed to be happy.”
Here’s more on this heartbreaking story:
Weatherwalk said Guthrie was likely squatting outside the Rite Aid to relieve the pressure she often felt during her pregnancy when she was struck by a van, which police said was driven by 88-year-old Allen Massie. Police have said it appears to be an accident, and Massie is not facing charges at this time.
The baby was delivered by emergency Caesarean section.
Weatherwalk said he named the baby Trace Joseph. The infant is in critical condition at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. His heart and other vital signs appear strong, but he is not breathing on his own and doctors are keeping his body temperature low to prevent any brain damage that may have been suffered in the crash.
“Whenever she got struck by the car, the lack of oxygen that she lost, he also lost. So they’re saying they don’t know whether anything is wrong with his brain,” Weatherwalk said.
“I walked in. They said ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ And I already knew something was wrong. And when they said, ‘Your son’s all right,’ I knew she was gone,” he said.
Weatherwalk doesn’t know yet how he will be able to raise his son without Guthrie. But he’s planning to make sure Trace Joseph knows how much his mother wanted to be there for him.
“We were supposed to do it normal. But I’m going to take care of him.”
Weatherwalk said his brother has started a fundraiser at gofundme.com/hx4ddk to help offset the cost of medical expenses and items he will need for Trace when the baby comes home from the hospital.
