'Miracle baby' doing well after being torn from womb

An eight-month-pregnant woman was killed as she was thrown through the windshield of this truck in Kentucky. Her baby survived

From staff and wire reports

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky -- The newborn boy emergency workers call a miracle baby -- born in the midst of a grisly highway wreck -- is in good condition Thursday after being torn from his mother's womb as she was killed in the crash in Kentucky.

The baby, found blue and motionless in the snow, survived with only a scratch on his knee. The father, who was driving the tractor-trailer at the time of the accident in Louisville, also survived Tuesday's accident with minor injuries.

"For the way this baby came into the world, through the hardships this baby survived, it's a miracle baby," rescue worker Jeff Landers said.

Kosair Children's Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Brosky said the newborn boy's condition had been upgraded from fair to good on Thursday.

When paramedic Charles Shepherd pulled back a blanket on the snowy embankment, he found the baby still attached by the umbilical cord to the torso of his lifeless mother, 31-year- old Olga Maria Nunes Bera-Cruz, whose body had been cut in half when she was thrown through the windshield.

The infant lay in the snow, covered by a blanket provided by Trisha Welch, 18, who rushed to the scene from her grandfather's house nearby after she heard the crash. The baby's father, Furtado Boaventura of Miami, was hovering over both mother and son, sobbing hysterically.

Shepherd grabbed the umbilical cord, and the baby started crying. "I praised the Lord and started to work," Shepherd said. He cut the cord and gave the baby oxygen. During the 15-minute dash to the hospital, "I prayed more on that run than any I've ever prayed before," he said.

The baby was named Patrick, a male version of Patricia, after the teen-ager who helped care for him until rescue workers arrived.

Shepherd said he hoped to visit the baby later this week and arrive bearing gifts, including a Bible. He said other rescue workers said they found an open Bible near the crash. "He is truly a miracle from God," Shepherd said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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