Medical emergency closes Coquihalla

The Coquihalla highway, south of Merritt, was closed for nearly two hours Monday afternoon for a medical emergency that involved an infant.

An Okanagan couple was travelling to B.C. Children’s Hospital with their two-week old son when the baby suddenly stopped breathing.

Merritt RCMP Sgt. Norm Flemming told Global News the child was en route to the hospital for a minor issue at the time. The parents immediately pulled over and began performing CPR on their baby.

RCMP got the call around 3:30 p.m. The highway was closed a short time later to allow an air ambulance helicopter to land on the road. The baby was unfortunately pronounced dead en route to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.

Sgt. Flemming says the tragic death was a coincidence and unrelated to the issue that had the family travelling to B.C. Children’s Hospital.

The B.C. Coroners Service is investigating.  No word on the cause of death.

The family is from the Okanagan and believed to live in the Vernon area.

Sgt. Flemming says it’s not that uncommon for the highway to close temporarily to allow air ambulance access to patients but usually the patients are involved in motor vehicle accidents.