A Smithers woman involved in a serious motor vehicle crash with her baby daughter and her mother-in-law on Sunday, May 4 north of Williams Lake said their baby is in Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.
“She is stable but still a lot of unknown at this time,” Haley Kaufman told ronaldomanosa Friday, May 16.
Kaufman said they were travelling home to Smithers on Highway 97 when the crash occurred about 10 km north of Wildwood. She was in the back seat of their RAV4 with their daughter, who is seven months old.
Days after the crash she posted on Facebook hoping to find the names of the paramedics who attended the scene because she wanted to thank them for saving their lives.
“These past 11 days have been very emotional and hard on all of us,” she wrote in the post. “I will forever remember their first names, I’m searching for a Nancy, a Toby and a younger man named Sam as well.”
When Kaufman initially contacted BC Emergency Health Services to find out their last names, she was told that information was not legally theirs to give out.
She praised them, saying they were the first paramedics on scene.
“Nancy didn’t leave my side from the time she opened that car door to the time I got airlifted off the highway to Kamloops,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman said Friday there was one more paramedic by the name of Shayna, who saved her daughter’s life that she wanted to thank too.
"She stayed with Aurelia until they were able to airlift her to Children’s Hospital," Kaufman said. "I will forever be grateful for all of them but Shayna holds a very special place in my heart."
Kaufman said her post was shared on a Coquihalla Facebook page and she was able to have her thank you passed along to the three paramedics.
On the day of the crash, which occurred just before noon, aside from BCEHS, the Wildwood Volunteer Fire Department, Central Cariboo Search and Rescue and the Williams Lake RCMP responded.
Highway 97 was closed for about eight hours in both directions between Pinnell Road and Lynes Creek Road.
