Mashayla Harper’s family speak after a hit-and-run nearly killed her

JONES COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - Mashayla Harper was 36 weeks pregnant when a driver hit her head-on in Soso as she was driving home from her baby shower.

She was found on the side of the road by a hunter that heard the accident.

Maurice Pruitt, her father, recalls the pain he felt as he got to South Central Regional Medical Center and was told about his daughter’s condition.

“The doctor came in and explained Mashayla had severe trauma to her and the baby didn’t make it through the accident,” Pruitt said.

For the next 24 hours, Harper was on life support all while wondering what had happened to her unborn child.

“She was just pointing at her stomach and she kept pointing at her stomach," Pruitt said. “She couldn’t talk because she had tubes in her. She was aware, but when she woke up she wanted to know where her baby was.”

Doctors told Pruitt that the child had died before Harper got to the hospital.

At first, there was a question of whether or not Harper would make it, but she has since been stabilized and has moved out of the ICU.

James Gilbert, 33, was arrested and is charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injuries.

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