A couple from California gets off the mountain and navigates the state's historic snowstorm to get to the hospital and deliver their baby.
A nine-month-pregnant Crystal Wade and her husband Brady needed to traverse through four feet of snow and ice down the side of the San Bernardino Mountains in the night to reach the hospital and give birth to their baby girl during California's historic February 2023 blizzard, which the New York Times describes as "rare and dangerous."
They delivered their baby girl and second child at five in the morning of February 24, 2023. Her parents called her "Winter," a perfect name for how and when she was born.
Treacherous journey through snow-unplowed road
The couple trekked from their house to where Brady parked their truck four blocks away. Crystal, who was already having contractions within a 10-minute interval since eight in the evening, referred to it as a difficult walk as it "hurt to be outside." Seeing was hard for them because they needed to close their eyes occasionally as the snow was whipping them in the face.
Yet getting inside their vehicle was just the start of a long, challenging journey as they drove down the mountain on unplowed roads, which made the travel a lot riskier with the snow falling and having no plans of stopping, Today narrated.
Crystal said that she was already in a lot of pain by then, and the road bumps were making the contractions even more intense.
At one point, she was already having contractions five minutes apart, and there was no cellphone reception in their area. She honestly thought that they would be giving birth inside the car.
On the other hand, Brady was already debating whether to stop at the nearest place resembling a medical facility, a fire station, or continue driving and going to the hospital.
He decided on the latter and made it into the hospital's parking area just right in the nick of time.
But the 'craziest ordeal' did not happen until after giving birth
"She came out with the cord wrapped around her neck. So I was so thankful that we were at the hospital, because if we were in the car and the cord was wrapped around her neck I would have freaked out not knowing what to do," Crystal told Today.
However, the story does not end there.
The hospital cleared mommy and baby Winter to return home Sunday night. They were supposed to go back up the mountain later as the snow on the road was seven to eight feet high, and the highway became a one-way road. But then their eldest son, Braden, whom they left in their friends' house, needed them as the family was running out of food.
So they decided to go home, which took them two hours instead of the usual one-hour drive. Brady drove the truck as far as it could until it got stuck. The couple then trekked again to reach home.
Two days after giving birth, Crystal walked through a massive snow drift carrying baby Winter in her jacket, WTAE reported.
Brady expressed that getting home was harder than going to the hospital. It was the "craziest part of the whole ordeal," he declared.
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