Louis Thorold: Mum adored 'perfect' baby killed when van hit pram

Louis Thorold pictured with his mother Rachael hours before the crash

The mother of a baby killed when a van hit his pram said she had "waited such a long time" to have her "perfect" son.

Rachael Thorold was pushing five-month-old Louis in his pram by the A10 in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, on 22 January, when they were hit.

Mrs Thorold spent 118 days in hospital with multiple broken bones and a brain injury.

She said she was determined to get back to the person her son "was totally in love with".

Her husband Chris said it was "quite miraculous" his wife survived and medics did not expect her to "survive the first 72 hours".

Mrs Thorold suffered a brain injury, which clinicians were "most worried about", as well as a skull fracture, broken cheek bones, a broken jaw, a number of broken vertebrae, a broken arm, pelvis, hip, and bones just below the knee.

Rachael Thorold said she was feeling physically "better" after the crash

At the time of the incident Mrs Thorold was on maternity leave, which she "totally adored... and enjoyed being a mum".

"It's what I'd waited such a long time to happen. We had quite a long journey through IVF to have him, but he was perfect," she said.

The 36-year-old, who does not remember the crash, said her grief was an "ongoing process" that "will probably take me many, many years, probably the rest of my life to get over".

Louis Thorold was born at the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge in August

She said her motivation was to "get back to who I was and that's the person who Louis was totally in love with and hopefully I can get back to being that".

Mrs Thorold said she was physically "better" but her issues were mostly muscular and "quite significant".

Having suffered a brain injury, she said mentally she was "reasonably all right, just a bit slower than what I used to be".

She is undergoing rehab which will continue for the rest of the year, but in 2022 she would "like to be in a good position to start thinking about hopefully having a family".

"Obviously we are at our lowest point now but hopefully we can get back close to where we were," she added.

Rachael pictured leaving hospital

Mr Thorold has set up the Louis Thorold Foundation with the aim of preventing infant pedestrian deaths.

The charity has so far raised nearly £50,000 and he said there were "too many statistics of children dying on the roads".

Louis died after the van left the road, having collided with a car on the A10.

Cambridgeshire Police said an investigation was ongoing.

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