She was a medical student who planned to specialize in emergency medicine. She was hit by a car — and had emergency surgery in the very hospital where she’d been caring for others the day before.
That irony was not lost on the hundreds of members of the Yale Medical School and hospital communities who gathered on campus Monday afternoon to share their sorrow following the death of a beloved Yale medical student who was fatally struck by a car over the weekend.
Mila Rainof was a fourth-year med student, getting ready to graduate and go into emergency medicine. She was hit by a car while crossing the street at the corner of South Frontage Road and York Street, right next to Yale New Haven Hospital.
The flowers pictured above mark the spot where she was struck.
Dr. Greg Larkin, associate chief of emergency medicine, offered details of the accident. Apparently both Rainof and a truckdriver who was backing up in the intersection were moving against a red light. When she tried to run across the street she was hit by an oncoming car. He told how hard her colleagues worked to try to save her.
People were encouraged to ask questions. An EMT (emergency medical technician) who was first on the scene asked, “Could I have done anything differently” to increase her chances of survival? Larson assured him that he’d done a great job, and thanked everyone who was involved in the effort.
Students, faculty and staff were advised to seek each other out, to offer hugs and words of condolence. “We’re in this together,” said Dean of Students Nancy Angoff. They were told that writing down stories of their times with Rainof could be therapeutic for them and would offer solace to her family in the future.
Many cried when told that most of Rainof’s organs have already been donated, which was her wish.
Dr. Margaret Drickamer was one of Rainof’s mentors and was devastated by her death. “Fault isn’t the point, but safety is,” she said. “The way our intersections work, it’s the most aggressive person who gets where they’re going. The other point,” she said, her voice breaking, “is that wonderful people die for no reason.” Drickamer is a gerontologist, the field that Rainof had thought she would go into when she started medical school. Drickamer said she was disappointed she changed her mind, and another speaker said that on every medical or surgical rotation Rainof went through, her mentors hoped she would choose that specialty.
Third-year med student Erica Mintzer said she hadn’t known Rainof well.
“I’m not someone who was so close to her that I’m feeling the tremendous grief and sadness and hopelessness that everyone is feeling, but I’m feeling so angry that I really want to do something and I really don’t want this to happen as often as it does. Obviously, accidents happen, and you can’t control everything, but there are so many little things we could do to make our streets safer that are easy to do that we just ignore. And this happens all the time in the hospital. And it’s so terrible that this girl who was going to dedicate her life to saving people’s lives when this happened, and then she can’t do it anymore.”
In an email message sent out earlier in the day to the Elm City Cycling list, she wrote, “I am a Yale Med student, and our community has been hit incredibly hard by this. Mila was one of the warmest people I’ve ever met, and she was about to graduate and go into emergency medicine.
“Personally, I am affected very strongly by this, as well as by the other victims of car, motorcycle, and pedestrian accidents that I have seen while rotating on the orthopedic trauma team in the past two weeks. There are SO MANY tragedies that no one ever hears about.
“When I rotate on trauma surgery in another month, I know I will see many more. Why do we continue to let this happen and call motor vehicle accidents “accidents”? Why don’t people know and talk about all these “accidents”? Why does Chief Perrotti send out “public safety” messages about muggings and crime, when no one is even injured, and ignores motor vehicle collisions? This has reached crisis level, and will continue to rise as we head into the summer driving months.
“I am incredibly sad and frustrated right now, and I am sure others are feeling the same. Perhaps we could channel this energy more productively somehow.”
Mintzer was speaking outside the building where the meeting took place, on the corner of Congress and Cedar streets. There’s a traffic light there and a walk light in both directions, but cars went through the red light on each of three cycles this reporter observed. After walking a few blocks to the intersection where the fatal accident occurred – which is right before vehicles merge onto Route 34 to get on I‑91 or I‑95 – cars were observed speeding through the light on South Frontage Road after it had turned red (as in this photo) and the Walk sign was visible.
The medical community is considering ways to honor the memory of a student who everyone agreed was committed to the highest ideals of medicine.
This is a terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to all who are affected by this.
The really sad thing is that this was probably a preventable death. Wouldn't she be alive if the driver was obeying the 25mph speed limit? There are four times as many fatalities from traffic incidents as there are from gun violence in this country. Yet traffic laws and speed limits are seen as little more than a nuisance to be avoided wherever possible.
Drivers in some other communities stop when they see a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Drivers in some other communities obey the speed limit. What is fundamentally different about us that we can't do the same here?