Aurora Sky Brandi Ledoux’s breath is laboured.
“It’s only a matter of time of when she wants to go,” Aurora’s grandmother Josie Ledoux, who’s been caring for Aurora since her birth, said.
The four-and-a-half year old was born via emergency cesarean at 26 weeks gestation after the vehicle her 17-year-old mother Brandi Lepine was a passenger in was struck by an impaired motorist on July 14, 2013.
The driver of their vehicle, Taylor Litwin, 21, was also killed. Baby Aurora hung onto her delicate life.
“She was well loved by each and every one of us. She had smiles, she had giggles,” Ledoux said from Aurora’s bedside at Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert, Sask., on Thursday afternoon.
“She’s the strongest little human being I’ve ever known.”
Born premature, and impacted in the collision, since birth Aurora has dealt with a brain injury and one functioning kidney.
“She didn’t get the chance to crawl, or walk, or hold a rattle toy,” Ledoux said with tear-filled eyes.
“She didn’t get the chance to speak ‘Grandma’. She didn’t get the chance to say ‘I love you’ or go to school. She didn’t get the chance to do anything of what other children could do. I wish she could have but she didn’t.”
Jeremiah Jobb, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of impaired driving causing death. In 2015 he was sentenced to four years in prison.
According to Prince Albert police, no further charges will be pursued as the statute of limitations dictates impaired driving fatalities must occur within 30 days of the collision in order to warrant a charge under the Criminal Code.
In 2013, the same year this crash happened, 42 people died in Saskatchewan as a result of traffic fatalities involving alcohol according to Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI). The year prior, 2012, had the highest number of traffic fatalities involving alcohol in the past decade with 69 deaths.
The provincial government has since rolled out tougher penalties and enforcement for impaired driving.
“Somebody made that wrong decision to drink and drive and mom and baby now… mom lost her life instantly and now baby’s lost hers. It’s a sad thing and that’s what we have to prevent,” Joe Hargrave, minister responsible for SGI, said.
“It took my daughter and now it’s taking my granddaughter away from me,” Ledoux, who begs people to think twice before they get behind the wheel after drinking alcohol, said.