When a driver hit and killed two women pushing a baby boy in a stroller in Winnetka on Friday, Mudassir Rashid and other family members were left in shock.
His wife, Sediqeh “Asra” Samadi, 37, of Kenilworth, a chemical engineer who worked at Abbott Labs, was one of the victims. The other was her mother, Saeideh Sigari, a 58-year-old teacher who was visiting from Iran and had been excited to meet her only grandson for the first time.
Samadi and Rashid’s 4-month-old son, Yusuf, who was in the stroller, has been hospitalized at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge in critical condition, said Rashid, an assistant professor and director of the pharmaceutical engineering program at Illinois Institute of Technology, also called Illinois Tech, in Chicago.
“Sediqeh is the kindest and gentlest soul I ever knew,” Rashid said. “She is a highly accomplished chemical engineer.”
Professor Ali Cinar, who was Samadi’s research advisor at Illinois Tech as she was working toward her Ph.D., which she earned six years ago, had the highest praise for her.
“She (Samadi) was someone always ready to assist others, do her best and make sure everyone was well taken care of,” said Cinar, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Engineering Center for Diabetes Research and Education at Illinois Tech, where he is a colleague of Rashid. “As a researcher, she did an excellent job, and published several papers in high-quality journals. It is quite a loss.”
“He (Rashid) is devastated. He went from having a happy wife and a blossoming baby to just clinging to his son,” Cinar said.
The two women were walking on the sidewalk, pushing the baby in the stroller, when a vehicle jumped the curb and hit them, Rashid said.
Cinar said he visited the young family a week ago to meet their baby.
“Seeing them together was the picture of happiness,” he said.
Now Rashid faces an unimaginable burden, Cinar said.
“Two deaths, and a five-month-old baby is in a condition that one shouldn’t ever see a child in that state,” he said.
Sigari was a beloved teacher in Iran before her retirement, and as she looked forward to her visit in the United States, “It was her greatest wish to see and hold (baby Yusuf),” Rashid said.
“Sediqeh’s father, sister and two brothers were also excited for Yusuf …to grow up so the families could reunite in Iran. But unfortunately, that reunion was never meant to be. Sediqeh’s family in Iran is currently struggling to cope with the loss of two cherished members.”
Rashid said Samadi came to the United States in February 2014 to pursue her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tehran and Sharif University of Technology, which Cinar said “would be the equivalent of CalTech or MIT in the United States.”
After completing her Ph.D., Rashid said she worked for a time at Procter & Gamble in their research and development division as an expert in process modeling.
Cinar said because of her specialty area, Abbott was interested in her and she went to work for them.
Rashid said her work at Abbott was as a designer and developer of medical devices for people with diabetes.
“She had a deep passion for her work and was committed to improving the quality of life for people with diabetes through innovative medical technologies. Her colleagues remarked that she was a remarkable person, an essential and integral part of the team, and that her absence will be profoundly felt by all,” Rashid said.
Cinar noted that Abbott makes a medical device called the Libre, which measures diabetes patients’ glucose levels and conveys that information through an app.
“She (Samadi) was working to improve the next generation of the product,” Cinar said, explaining that the device reduces or eliminates the need for diabetic patients to repeatedly prick their fingers for drops of blood so that a different device can check their glucose levels.
“She was very good at what she did,” Cinar said.
A spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, which is handling the case because the crash occurred on a portion of land that was never legally incorporated into the village of Winnetka, said it is still under investigation.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement Saturday that a vehicle traveling southbound on Church Road struck two female pedestrians and an infant in a stroller at the intersection with Meadow Road, and that the infant was in critical condition at a hospital, one pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene and the other at a local hospital. It also said the driver and passenger were taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. “There is no indication of foul play at this point, but the investigation is ongoing,” the statement said.
In response to an inquiry about baby Yusuf, Katie Dahlstrom, communications manager for Advocate Children’s Hospital, said, “per the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), we are unable to release information regarding a minor.”
