'I thought my baby was gone'

Two days past her due date, Aimee Aguilar feared her baby was lost Saturday.

On her way to meet her husband for dinner, a 16-year-old driving an eastbound vehicle on Minnesota State Highway 200 turned into the path of Aguilar's Chevy Trailblazer near Mahnomen.

"My stomach hit the steering wheel really hard," said Aguilar, who was driving west on 200 when the crash occurred about 7:48 p.m. She fell down when she got out of the vehicle. Panic began to set in as she waited for a train to pass so an ambulance could reach her.

"All I could feel was cramping; cramping and a lot of pain," the 20-year-old said from her MeritCare hospital bed Tuesday. "At that time I thought my baby was gone. I didn't think he was alive. I couldn't feel him move."

Emergency personnel struggled to find her son's heartbeat on the bumpy ride to the hospital.

"I told her (emergency worker) to stop. ... I thought he was gone," she said.

But at the hospital, a jumpy heartbeat was found. Aguilar was sent off for an emergency C-section just as her husband, Joe, arrived at St. Mary's Regional Health in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

"Next thing you know they're gassing me," Aguilar recalled. "And I wake up and I'm in the recovery room.

I don't even know where my baby's at."

Aguilar briefly saw her son, Jordan James Aguilar, before he was airlifted to Fargo's MeritCare Hospital, where he is listed in critical condition.

Her husband went to Fargo to be with the baby. Aguilar tried to go, too, but said she was told insurance would not cover the cost to transfer her.

After being told doctors were unsure whether their son would make it, Aguilar said she asked her doctor to discharge her or she would leave. She arrived in Fargo Sunday after St. Mary's Regional Health in Detroit Lakes, Minn., paid for her transfer, Aguilar said.

The accident caused her placenta to separate from her son, resulting in a lack of oxygen that may cause brain damage, she said.

"They don't know how long he was without (oxygen)," Aguilar said, adding the plan is to do an MRI today.

The couple intends to stay in Fargo with the help of the Ronald McDonald House while their son is hospitalized.

Joe Aguilar, 36, said his wife is holding up better than he is, but they both have faith their son will make it.

He said he initially thought his brother-in-law was joking when he came to his work at Shooting Star Casino and told him there had been an accident.

"The thing that keeps running through my mind is we should be home with him right now," Joe Aguilar said.

Her son is "in pretty rough shape," hooked up to several machines and will likely face several problems throughout his life, Aimee Aguilar said. But for now, she's focusing on her son surviving the crash.

"I'm just so happy he's alive," she said. "Just to hear that he's going to make it and going to live, right now (that) is good enough for me ... I'll worry about his problems when they find out more."

The Mahnomen, Minn., girl driving the other vehicle, was not injured in the crash. Her name has not been released.

The crash remains under investigation.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Brittany Lawonn at (701) 241-5541