'I was dying inside.' Mom explains how she gave birth during car accident then couldn't find the baby
Crystan Dve took home her newborn baby Cea from the hospital Wednesday, 10 days after she gave birth during frightening car accident.
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Cea Anderson went home with her mother and grandmother Wednesday, just 10 days after coming into this world during a car accident on the way to the hospital.
“It was unbelievable to me,” grandmother Chrys Yvette said. “God was… it was a miracle. That baby’s a miracle.”
She certainly fits the definition. Her survival was extraordinary.
Before dawn on April 13, Crystan Dve told her mom that she was feeling sharp pains. She grabbed her 14-month-old daughter Tai, and the the three raced to Northside Gwinnett in Lawrenceville.
Chyrs was driving. Crystan was in the middle row seat of their Chevy Tahoe with Tai and a carseat. It had been raining that night. In the darkness, Chrys hit a patch of water.
The SUV hydroplaned along Highway 29 in Lilburn, crashing into the side entrance of the Hindu Temple.
They were 11 miles short. And suddenly one baby missing.
The accident sent the family's SUV crashing into the side gate of the Hindu Temple in Lilburn. Their vehicle was totaled.
“We’re trying to get to the hospital to give birth,” Chrys explained to a Lilburn police officer who arrived seconds after the crash. His body cam video revealed the initial confusion.
“Where’s the baby at?” he asked.
“We don’t know!” Chrys cried. “I was just trying to get to the hospital!”
Crystan remembered sitting in the back seat trying to deal with Tai during that ill-fated race to the hospital.
“That’s when the baby popped out and I was about to grab her and next thing I know the car just went and everything is going crazy and the glass was breaking,” she recounted.
The SUV came to a sudden stop. It was the new mom who would take charge.
“She got us out of the car,” explained Chrys. “That’s when she told me I can’t find the baby. I gave birth and can’t find the baby and from that point on I pretty much lost it.”
Lilburn police found Cea Anderson under the middle row seat. The placenta and umbilical cord were still attached.
The Lilburn officer was still confused.
“Where was the baby at?” he asked.
“In her womb!” cried Chrys. “She was giving birth!”
Once out of the smoking car, Crystan made another attempt.
“I went back to the car to try to look for my baby as I’m holding this one,” she explained. “And it was just completely impossible. Everything was everywhere.”
Lilburn police searched the area around the SUV, worried the baby may have been thrown out during the crash.
All Crystan and her mom could do was stand to the side and watch. And pray.
“I was dying inside but I had to keep it together for my mom and my baby,” she said.
It took only a few minutes for Lilburn police officer Cepeda Huff to find Cea tucked into an empty space under the middle seat. He called it a “little pocket.”
Somehow, she was unharmed.
“She wasn’t crying or nothing like that,” said officer Huff. “She was peaceful.”
Officers Cepeda Huff (L) Danny Bride and Sgt. Matt Madden (R) responded to the accident shortly after it happened.
“That’s why I call them our angels because they were just there on the scene and they just took charge and found her,” said Chrys.
Cea was born premature, weighing 3.9 pounds, but Crystan said that’s typical for her family. They had a planned delivery scheduled for this week.
Cea goes home with no required medications. She weighs four pounds now.
“Everything’s like nothing happened,” said Crystan. “Like she just came here normal.”
Now that they have their family back, they will look for a new car. Their SUV was totaled.
A minor loss compared to how this story could have ended.
“I felt God’s presence there,” said Crystan. “I wasn’t alone.”