On the night of Saturday, June 22, Kelley Moulton knew instantly what the call she received from the chaplain at a local hospital meant. Her best friend was dying.
What she didn’t yet know was this: That her friend, Emily Ludwig, had been hit by a rogue tire on Interstate 44 that crashed into Ludwig’s windshield and injured her severely.
A social worker like Ludwig, Moulton could read between the lines when the chaplain at Mercy Hospital asked for Ludwig’s next of kin. At the emergency room, she got the awful confirmation: Her friend likely wasn’t coming back. The catastrophic damage done to her brain was too severe.
Ludwig’s doctors declared her brain dead a few days later, on July 28, after days of trying to decrease brain inflammation. She was 38 years old.
“She was like a sister to me,” Moulton says. “Like family of choice.”
Ludwig’s family is “horrifically sad” about her death, according to Moulton. Ludwig’s sudden departure, and the nature of her death, has left the family devastated, but what’s compounded their grief further is not knowing the circumstances of the crash. What led to the tire landing on Ludwig's vehicle? Whose tire was it? What happened immediately after the crash?
Ludwig’s medical team said the bleeding in her brain could not fully account for the inflammation and degree of damage to her brain; she may have been deprived of oxygen, according to Moulton.
“The doctors don’t even know how long it was until she had CPR,” Moulton says.
It’s also unknown whose tire crashed into Ludwig’s car. Moulton and Ludwig’s family still have no idea who the other driver was. “That’s becoming really hard for the family now that she’s gone,” Moulton says. Having answers to their questions would give them a sense of closure, she adds.
Corporal Dallas Thompson with the Missouri State Highway Patrol says the agency is still investigating the matter. So far, they know that a 15-inch tire came off of a camper or utility trailer.
Ludwig was driving westbound on I-44 when a tire from a vehicle traveling east became airborne and crossed into her lane of traffic.
The tire struck the top of Ludwig’s SUV and its windshield, causing Ludwig to drive off the roadway and strike a concrete median. Her Kia Sorento ended up on the side of the interstate.
Ludwig died six days later, but she’ll live on, Moulton says. Ludwig was an organ donor, and so far her heart, lungs, liver and left and right kidney have been donated to five different people. Her pancreas has been donated to research.
“I honestly feel like in some kind of way, she’s giving five people a second chance at life,” Moulton says. “And that’s exactly what she did as a social worker. That’s who Emily was.”
Ludwig was deeply committed to her job as a social worker who worked with individuals experiencing homelessness and substance abuse, Moulton explains. She was smart, compassionate, and perceptive of other people’s needs. Moulton recalled a a memory Ludwig's sister shared about when one of Ludwig’s clients recognized her on the street and shouted “Miss Emily!”
“She went through things herself, her own personal struggles, and by processing those it made her so equipped to help other people,” Moulton says.
Ludwig had just paid a deposit for an apartment near her brother and mother in St. Charles, who she intended to further support by being closer to them.
But Ludwig didn’t have anything set up for funeral expenses or any kind of funding to help her family long-term. Moulton recently set up a GoFundMe campaign to help alleviate their financial burden.
“If Emily had the opportunity to express her dying wishes I know she would want both the practical short-term and long-term financial needs of her family to be met,” Moulton wrote in the campaign’s description.
As of the posting of this article, the campaign has raised about $7,600 of its $50,000 goal.
The state Highway Patrol asks anyone with information to call 636-300-2800.
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