Father of youngest person killed in deadly storms talks about 2-month-old baby girl
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE/Gray News) – Doug Koon lost his 2-month-old daughter in a deadly tornado that swept through Indiana last week.
Now, he’s trying to balance his sadness for what he’s lost with gratitude for what he still has.
WFIE reports there isn’t much left of Koon’s mother-in-law’s house where he and his family went to ride out the storm.
They were secured in the house and are still uncertain if the house was dragged away or picked up and dropped nearby.
After making sure their other two boys were OK, they thought they were in the clear.
“I thought everything was good, you know. In my mind, we’re all going to make it. We’re all beat up but we’re going to make it. We all just lived through this,” Koon said.
Then they noticed their daughter, Oaklynn, wasn’t acting like herself.
She was taken by an air ambulance to a hospital in Evansville and then to Louisville where doctors told them if she lived, she would be brain-dead.
Koon and his wife decided together to remove life support.
“You know I can’t sit there and watch her suffer like that, and she can’t either,” Koon explained.
It’s not hard to see how much Koon adored and loved his baby girl.
“She was an angel, man. She really was. She was the best baby. No matter what kind of day I was having, I could have the worst day ever, but as soon as I got home and I seen her, I was good,” Koon said.
Now, they’re having to turn their attention to their other two boys and be strong for them.
“It’s hard, it really is, because I try not to break down in front of them because I don’t want them to break down too bad either,” Koon said. “But I know they have to go through the grieving process just like I do.”
For now, he’s focused on giving them a good Christmas.
Despite how much Koon and his wife are hurting, they made a point of saying they’re grateful for everything the people around them have done for them.
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