The condition of a 27-year-old woman who was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the Stapleton neighborhood has been upgraded from critical to serious condition, authorities say.
The improvement comes a day after Laura Gorham’s condition worsened to critical condition on Friday, said Kalena Wilkinson, spokeswoman for Denver Health Medical Center.
Denver police fanned out across the Stapleton neighborhood Friday evening, looking for information that might lead them to the driver who ran down the pregnant woman the night before and drove off.
Gorham’s baby boy was delivered at the hospital Thursday, but did not survive. The Denver coroner’s office could not say Friday whether the baby had been born alive. Gorham’s condition was initially listed as stable but worsened Friday.
On Friday, Lt. Matt Murray called on the driver to “do the right thing and turn yourself in.”
Gorham, who was 34 weeks pregnant, was walking east in a crosswalk on East 29th Avenue about 5 p.m. Thursday when she was hit by a dark sport utility vehicle or pickup headed south on Central Park Boulevard, police said.
Murray said there were witnesses to the accident, but he declined to offer details of what they described or to say whether the vehicle left behind any traces that might help identify it.
Stapleton United Neighbors president Steve Lawrence called the intersection where Gorham was hit a “difficult” one but said he wasn’t aware of any previous accidents there.
But Lori Maldonado, who lives a block north, called the intersection “scary.”
Central Park Boulevard and East 29th Avenue is an intersection of two boulevards, and drivers headed in any direction encounter one stop sign, then another about a car-length or so later.
In addition, the East 29th Avenue boulevard is traversed by a path often crowded with people walking, jogging and pushing strollers.
“It’s very confusing, and it’s too dark, though that’s not justifying anything,” Maldonado said. “People just need to go slow there.”
A stuffed bear at the intersection in the Stapleton area has this message: “R.I.P. my unborn child! We will do you justice find the coward!” (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)illuminated at 5 p.m. Friday — the same time the accident happened a day earlier.
The Stapleton neighborhood is near the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, where Gorham has been working.
She came to Denver about a year ago on a research-training grant and has been working in the pediatrics department, housed at Children’s Hospital, according to university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery.
Gorham and her husband, Pete Sherlock, both attended Emory University in Atlanta.
In 2006, Gorham was one of six students who won Emory University’s humanitarian award.
On her Facebook page, Laura Gorham lists her activities as “growing a baby!!!, spending time with my wonderful family and puppies, exploring Denver, cooking, yoga, Reading, Hiking.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
Plea for information
Denver police are asking witnesses or anyone who might have information to call the Traffic Investigations Bureau at 720-337-1000 and refer to case 10-607750. A $2,000 reward is being offered.
