Passenger gives birth to twins just hours after deadly bus crash
A pregnant survivor of the horrific collision between a passenger bus and semi-trailer truck that killed eight people, gave birth to twins just hours after the crash.
Christy Westerdale was in stable condition after giving birth at a Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services clinic in the US state of New Mexico.
The two newborn babies were in neo-natal intensive care at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, Sonlee West, the director of the hospital’s trauma unit told reporters at a news conference.
Ms Westerdale and the twins’ father, Joseph Chandler, were on the bus headed back home to Stockton when it crashed. The impact forced Ms Westerdale to give birth two months early, Fox40 reports.
“I just thank God that my babies are OK,” she told the news channel.
“I just can’t believe they’re so strong through it all.”
Mr Chandler was knocked unconscious in the crash, but woke up to scenes like an “apocalyptic movie”.
“I got my whole family off the bus and it’s a miracle. I cannot believe it. Everybody that was sitting in front of my family is dead,” he told FOX40.
“I thought she was dead,” he said of his wife.
“When she woke up in my arms, I was like, ‘Oh my God! Come on baby, we’re going to be OK, we’re going to get off this bus.”
Eight people were killed when the semi-trailer blew a tyre on the Interstate 40 in New Mexico and jumped a highway median strip, colliding head-on with the Greyhound bus in the town of Thoreau, about 161km west of Albuquerque.
Photos showed a truck on its side with the trailer’s cargo scattered across the highway and the Greyhound bus upright, but with its front end obliterated.
Most of the 49 passengers on the Phoenix, Arizona-bound bus were injured in the wreck and taken to local hospital.
Their injuries ranged from spine and pelvic fractures to broken legs, West said.
“Several of them will have a long road of recovery ahead,” she said.
Three of the six victims taken to hospital were in critical condition, but the condition of the rest had not been released, said spokeswoman Cindy Foster.
