A 58-year-old physician at a Long Island children's hospital is dead after falling out of a moving house trailer when the wind blew the door open on a highway over the weekend, authorities say.
The Long Island doctor was heading to upstate New York to see the solar eclipse with her family, they were driving on State Route 12E in the town of Brownville, Jefferson County, on Saturday afternoon when the freak accident happened, according to New York State Police. It was the last 20 minutes of their ride. Monika Woroniecka's husband was towing the house trailer.
Woroniecka, who worked in Stony Brook Medicine's Pediatric Allergy and Immunology department, decided to spend those last 20 minutes in the trailer, along with other family members. The unthinkable happened.
Witnesses who had been driving behind the trailer told state troopers they saw the passenger side door of the Airstream open and Woroniecka's arm hanging on it after a strong wind. It wasn't clear if she was trying to close the door. The 58-year-old doctor was thrown from the Airstream and hit her head on the shoulder of the roadway.
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She died of her injuries at a hospital. The one that employed her, meanwhile, was left to mourn her in a statement.
"Stony Brook Medicine is deeply saddened to learn of the tragic loss of one of our esteemed colleagues over the weekend, Dr. Monika Woroniecka, a physician at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital," the hospital said in a statement Monday. "Our thoughts are with her family, friends and colleagues affected by this heartbreaking event."
It wasn't clear who else was in the house trailer with Woroniecka at the time she fell.
Local
State Police say their investigation is continuing.
According to Woroniecka's profile page on Stony Brook's website, she has specialized in allergy-immunology since the early 2000s. Along with treating kids who have food, environmental and bee sting allergies, Woroniecka treated childhood asthma and skin conditions like eczema and hives. She also had experience evaluating kids for immunity disorders and frequent infections, and had a penchant for developing long-term relationships with families she treated.
Woroniecka enjoyed travel, hiking, exercising and spending time with family and friends, the page said.
