A young girl — whose mother described her as a “miracle baby” for surviving two collapsed lungs at childbirth — died after she was crushed by a falling tree during a vicious thunderstorm in Wisconsin Monday night, according to reports.
Rose Elizabeth Hendricks, 9, was standing in the street outside her Green Bay home when a neighbor’s tree toppled in the strong winds and fell on her around 3:30 p.m. — leaving her trapped for nearly 10 minutes.
Neighbors rushed to help the young girl until firefighters used a car jack to free her, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported.
Hendricks was rushed to a local hospital, where she died hours later after suffering brain trauma, multiple skull fractures, and a crushed heart and lungs.
“She was very strong,” her mother, Jayme Denamur, told NBC 26.
“She fought until she couldn’t no more.”
The heartbroken mother said she had just returned home with her children after trying to go food shopping during the dangerous storm when the tree suddenly uprooted and pinned her daughter to the ground.
Hendricks, described as an artsy, fun, and energetic child who enjoyed dancing, softball and video games, defied the odds and lived nine years longer than doctors had predicted at birth, her mom said.
“My daughter’s actually a miracle baby,” Denamur told the outlet.
“She wasn’t supposed to make it during childbirth, She was born with collapsed lungs and doctors told me she wasn’t going to make it. But, she proved them wrong and she only lived to be nine.”
The grief-stricken mother’s son, who narrowly avoided being hit by the tree and witnessed the harrowing incident, is now grappling with the tragic loss.
“It’s just so hard on us and her brother doesn’t really know how to take it quite yet,” Denamur said.
“But, he’s upset. This morning he just begged and asked for his sister to come back.”
The bereaved family, who kept a chunk of the tree that killed their daughter as a keepsake, launched a fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses, raising nearly $17,500 in donations since Tuesday.
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