By Dave Andrusko
Mindy Simpson
A quick thinking nurse is being credited with saving the life of an eight-month-old unborn child whose mother tragically died in a car crash in Salt Lake City.
With tears in her eyes, Mindy Simpson told KSTU television of the terrible moments that followed when she and her husband and their 5-year-old son heard a loud crash. A train had just crashed into a car about a hundred yards away.
“I immediately ran over and saw the driver and pulled him out,” Simpson said. “It’s hard and it’s overwhelming and feels surreal.”
“He kept screaming, ‘Where’s my baby?! Where’s my baby?!’ And I turned and saw Ofa up the track and ran to her,” Simpson said.
Ofa Kinikini, 30, and the mother of six other children under the age of 10, was lifeless. She’d been ejected from the passenger seat of the car.
“I looked at him and I screamed at him, ‘Is she pregnant?’ and he said, ‘She’s due next month,'” Simpson told KSTU. “My first thought was I have to keep blood flow, heart pumping, anything I could for that baby. She immediately started chest compressions and within five minutes of beginning CRP, doctors arrived and performed an emergency C-Section to rescue the baby.
According to the latest news accounts, the newborn remains in critical condition. Tragically they were unable to save Kinikini.
While Mrs. Simpson said she felt as if she hadn’t done enough, Kinikini’s family says Mindy was a godsend.
“If she wasn’t there, I don’t think she would have survived,” said Michael Kinikini. “She is a hero, and our family is always going to look at that as her being a hero.”
“My goal is to hold that little one,” Simpson said simply, “hold her and see her and love on her.”