She is only 2 weeks old. But little Cea Tiyanna has already lived through quite the adventure, starting with the morning she was born in the back of an SUV.
Seconds later, Cea’s grandmother crashed, sending the tiny baby under a seat. Somehow, Chrys Yvette Jones, her daughter and 14-month-old granddaughter were able to climb out from the wreckage through the passenger doors.
But where was Cea?
“We didn’t even think about 911,” Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The Lord sent me those officers. Those were angels.”
An officer found little Cea, who wasn't crying and seemed unfazed by her grand entry. It's a story with a happy ending, but the family knows it could have been very different.
‘I had to keep breathing’
It started off as minor cramps, and Crysten D’ve Graham thought she was having contractions. But when the pain got worse, the 23-year-old told her mother she needed to go to the hospital. Graham’s doctors at Northside Hospital Gwinnett had told her to get checked if she was in pain.
It was the same night tornado warnings had kept many in metro Atlanta awake for hours, and the roads were still slick. Graham’s older daughter, 14-month-old Tai, was crying and didn’t want to get into her car seat. But the toddler didn’t have a choice.
“I think a lot about what could’ve happened if I hadn’t strapped her into her car seat while I was in labor,” Graham said. “It was very intense.”
As the family drove from Tucker headed to the Lawrenceville hospital shortly after 5 a.m., Graham said she realized quickly she wasn’t going to make it there. Cea had other plans. Her older sister had also arrived earlier than her due date.
“I basically delivered my own baby,” Graham said. “I had to stop screaming and keep breathing.”
Graham told her mom, who was driving, she had delivered her baby.
“Just as she’s telling me that, I’m hydroplaning,” Jones said.
She lost control of her Chevrolet Tahoe and crashed into a telephone pole and a fence off Lawrenceville Highway, near the intersection with Rockbridge Road.
Jones, 47, said she was dazed from the crash, but her daughter was somehow calm as the women got Tai out of the passenger side of the mangled SUV.
Graham said she immediately felt as though God was with the family.
“I actually felt his presence there. I knew he was there,” she said. “And that’s what allowed me to be so calm.”
‘Heroes’ arrive to help
Moments later, two Lilburn officers happened to see the wreck and pulled over, and their sergeant wasn’t far behind. It had already been a busy night with storms rolling through. All three were nearing the end of the 12-hour overnight shift.
“When I was driving down Lawrenceville Highway, I looked to my left-hand side and I saw the mom and grandmom,” Officer Cepada Huff said. “Once I got out with them, the grandmom was saying her daughter had a baby.”
Huff, Officer Danny Bride and Sgt. Matt Madden initially thought baby Cea might have gone through a window and began searching for her.
“We were quite relieved to find the baby in the SUV,” Bride said.
Huff found the baby under the backseat and quickly pulled her out. Cea looked fine, he said.
“She wasn’t crying,” Huff said. “She was still moving around. Peaceful.”
All four family members were then taken by ambulance to the hospital, and Graham was handed little Cea as she held Tai.
“I held both of them together,” she said.
It was the young sisters’ first time seeing each other, Graham said.
None of the four were seriously injured. But doctors kept both Graham and Cea at the hospital. Because of coronavirus precautions, the two were in separate rooms and couldn’t have visitors, but Graham was able to “see” her baby on a cellphone app. Cea weighed in at 3 pounds, 9 ounces.
The newborn stayed 10 days before being released, and is now up to 4 pounds, her mother says.
The family is now adjusting to life with two young sisters, grateful for the officers who rescued Cea. They are true heroes, both the mother and grandmother say.
It was just another day at work, though a little more exciting than some shifts, according to the three officers, all of them fathers.
“They just happened to have an accident while we were working,” Madden said. “It’s nothing special that we did. We just happened to be working that night.”
Graham and Jones disagree.
“They knew exactly what to do, and they acted on it immediately,” Graham said. “They found my baby very fast.”
After the crash, the officers remained at the scene for three hours to direct traffic while the wreckage was cleared. But none complained about working overtime.
“We didn’t really mind directing traffic at that point,” Bride said.
Just two days before Cea’s arrival, Jones said her own grandmother died, days before her 99th birthday. Cea’s birth made a heartbreaking time easier to endure.
“We had a grand exit and a grand entry at the same time,” Jones said. “I have no idea what this child is going to do, but I know it’s gonna be grand.”
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