A new mom in Florida is speaking out after she survived a “harrowing” car crash into a body of water and gave birth just hours later.
On Friday, Feb. 6, 29-year-old Shedly Apollon was headed to a prenatal massage appointment in Stuart, Fla., when, after beginning to feel faint, she veered off the road and plunged into a pond, CBS 12 reported.
“Immediately, I tried to open my driver-side door and the passenger door, but they were both submerged,” Apollon told the outlet as she recovered at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce.
The expectant mom was rescued by a good Samaritan, later identified as Logan Hayes, and rushed to the hospital, where doctors performed an emergency C-section. Her daughter, Ivory Sully, was born at 33 weeks and admitted to the NICU.
“I was upset about the car taking a swim,” Apollon said with a laugh. “But now they can have it. I have my baby girl.”
Around 8 a.m. local time on Friday, Martin County Fire & Rescue “responded to a harrowing scene near the 112-mile marker on I-95 after a vehicle left the roadway and became fully submerged in a pond near the weigh station,” according to an MCFR statement.
Apollon told CBS 12 she was banging on the window and yelling, “Someone save me,” when Hayes, who was on his way to work and happened to pass the terrifying scene, pulled over without hesitation. He jumped out of his vehicle and headed into the water, ripping open one of the doors as it began to pool around her feet. He pulled her out and managed to swim them both to safety.
“Reports from the scene indicate that as the car began to sink, a Good Samaritan who witnessed the crash immediately jumped into action,” the MCFR statement continued. “We were told the witness swam roughly 30 feet from the shore to reach the vehicle. He was able to reach the driver, whom he recognized was pregnant, and open the door.”
“When he swung that door open, I was just like, ‘Okay, you are an angel. You came out of nowhere,’” she recalled.
Apollon confirmed that she and Hayes have since reconnected via FaceTime, People magazine reported. On Monday, Feb. 10, she also finally got to connect with her daughter and share skin-to-skin contact with her newborn for the first time.
“Having her hands touch me and feeling her heartbeat, it was surreal,” she said.
Her fiancé, Woodly Sully, also expressed his relief that the situation turned out the way it did.
“I got to see both of my girls,” he told the outlet. “She came out with no scratches, and the only way I can explain this is that’s God.”
Since the ordeal happened on Apollon’s birthday, she and her baby girl now share the same special day.
“We can share this with her one day,” she said. “I can laugh with her. Now that we share a birthday, our bond is tighter than ever.”
