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Pregnant mother who pushed kids out of way as she was hit by car to be honored at Indy 500

Bailey Rogers, a mother of three from Terre Haute, was 34 weeks pregnant last Fourth of July when she was hit by a car after pushing her kids out of the way.

INDIANAPOLIS — Bailey Rogers' injuries are a reminder of her greatest miracle.

"This is miss miracle baby, Miss Rayleigh," Rogers said. "She kept me alive, and I kept her alive, so she's my miracle baby."

Rogers, a mother of three from Terre Haute, was 34 weeks pregnant last Fourth of July.

"Honestly don't really know how it happened, what happened," Rogers said. "I just saw a car coming at my kids, and I pushed them out of the way, and I got taken under the car."

She was pinned, helpless and frightened for her unborn child.

"I said, I'm pretty sure my baby's dead," Rogers said.

She was rushed to IU Union Hospital in Terre Haute, where they did an emergency C-section to save her baby. Then, Rogers took a LifeLine flight to Indianapolis.

"The next thing I remember, I woke up here," Rogers said.

She was at IU Methodist Hospital in downtown Indianapolis, away from her family and fighting for her life.

"My femur was completely snapped in two," Rogers said. "I had a hip dislocation, my pelvis, my pelvic ring, my hip ball joint, it was all completely shattered."

Friday, she returned to Methodist Hospital with all three of her children, on her own two feet. Nearly a year later, Rogers is wowing those who saw her at her worst.

"I had never seen her walk before," said Jennifer Mink, a registered nurse at IU Methodist. "To know what she's been through and to see how well she's doing now, it blows me away, but it doesn't surprise me."

"Every member of our team that took care of Bailey, from door to door, and into the clinic, it took all of us to get to this day, and it took an amazing person to push through all of it," trauma surgeon Rachel Rodriguez said.

Credit: Bailey Rogers

Rogers says she has her doctors and her youngest to thank.

"They told me, basically, if I wasn't pregnant, I wouldn't have made it because your bones are so much more durable when you're pregnant," Rogers said.

Rogers will deliver the green flag during the opening ceremony of this year's Indy 500, sharing her story and message of perseverance.

"I could've been not alive, but I'm here now, and I'm telling my story and telling people, 'Don't ever give up,'" Rogers said.

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