--- title: Here's How a Baby Survived 14 Hours in a Freezing River description: The icy weather may have helped baby Lily survive. canonical: https://time.com/3738752/baby-survived-14-hours-freezing-river/ author: Rachel Janik article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-10T14:44:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:25.541Z og:title: Here's How a Baby Survived 14 Hours in a Freezing River og:description: The icy weather may have helped baby Lily survive. og:url: https://time.com/3738752/baby-survived-14-hours-freezing-river/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27e42734585175b3/698782f32dce011b7b9ddf56/utah-car-crash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: US-ACCIDENT-CHILDREN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How a Baby Survived 14 Hours in a Freezing River twitter:description: The icy weather may have helped baby Lily survive. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27e42734585175b3/698782f32dce011b7b9ddf56/utah-car-crash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How a Baby Survived 14 Hours in a Freezing River > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=be1b4292-1ddb-4133-956e-e1a23ac03a8b&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch: A Mother Reflects on a Fatal Error [Watch (HLS stream): Watch: A Mother Reflects on a Fatal Error](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YUx3XDRm.m3u8) (3:35)  _Published 2014-08-31. Who’s at Fault When a Child Dies in a Hot Car?_ by [Rachel Janik](https://time.com/author/rachel-janik/) ## Rachel Janik Mar 10, 2015 2:44 PM UTC  Emergency crews at the site where a vehicle plunged off a bridge into the Spanish fork River. Emergency crews at the site where a vehicle plunged off a bridge into the Spanish fork River. Spanish Fork City Police Dept./AFP/Getty Images by [Rachel Janik](https://time.com/author/rachel-janik/) ## Rachel Janik Mar 10, 2015 2:44 PM UTC An 18-month-old girl from Utah who was trapped in an overturned car for 14 hours [may have survived because of the icy weather](http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/09/health/utah-baby-submerged-car-survival/index.html), not in spite of it, doctors say. The toddler was left hanging upside down in her car seat with no food after the devastating crash that killed her mother, suspended over a freezing river as temperatures plunged overnight Friday and into Saturday morning. Ironically, one expert says, the cold may have helped. “When you become hypothermic, it slows the body down. Metabolism drops; your oxygen consumption drops; your glucose metabolism in use drops. It actually ends up being neuroprotective,” Dr. Barbara Walsh of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center [told CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/09/health/utah-baby-submerged-car-survival/index.html). The girl’s baby fat might also have helped insulate her from the elements, she added. “Children are very resilient, and I think sometimes we don’t realize how much they actually can withstand.” But the car seat played the most significant part in the girl’s survival. Her mother, 25-year-old Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, used the appropriate size of car seat and strapped her in properly. During the accident, this kept her from falling out of the car, and in the hours afterward, it kept her dry. As for the lack of food, there’s no telling when the baby was last fed before the crash. In this case, it’s likely baby Lily got very lucky. She’s currently recovering in the hospital, and her family says she is improving. \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/09/health/utah-baby-submerged-car-survival/index.html)\] _Read next:_ [_Toddler Found Alive 14 Hours After Car Crash in Utah River_](http://time.com/3736745/toddler-found-alive-car-crash-utah/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript [00:02] The accounts I've heard is somebody in the parking lot [00:04] just heard a scream and they couldn't tell if it was a [00:08] kid or a man. To imagine what it's like for your worst [00:12] nightmare to come true. It, it tore me apart. [ MUSIC ] [00:21] We heard about this every summer. You get the little [00:25] snippet of something on TV, and tragic death of child [00:29] left in hot car. Never once did it [00:34] ever cross our mind that this could happen to [00:40] us. [00:46] [ MUSIC ] [00:51] It was just any other day. He [00:56] got Ben up, I was in the bedroom getting ready. The [01:01] last thing I remember about Ben is that Ben had his [01:04] little green alligator pajamas on and then I just [01:07] remember he got him ready and just left like any other [01:10] day. [01:19] It's a moment. People describe it as a second. Where [01:22] you're driving and your different memory systems are [01:24] working together and, and you have the same route [01:29] that you drive every day, and for some reason, on that [01:36] day, your habitual memory takes over and instead of [01:39] making yourself turn one way, you just turn the other [01:42] way [ MUSIC ] At the [01:47] end of the day, he simply went to pick Ben up at [01:50] daycare, at a little after 5 like he does every single [01:53] day. Walked in, went into the room, started looking [01:57] around, didn't see Ben. And I think at that point any. [02:01] Father or mother, your brain starts putting things [02:04] together and you start going back through your day. [02:06] Okay do I remember him going into daycare? Do I [02:09] remember what he is wearing? Do I remember x, y [02:10] and z, and so probably during that phase I could [02:13] imagine, he probably lost his mind in ways to be [02:17] honest, because it's your worst nightmare coming to [02:19] fruition [ MUSIC ] You know, I think [02:27] psychologists call it the fundamental attribution error. [02:30] It's where, you look at outside events, and to make [02:34] ourselves believe that something that horrible could [02:36] never happen to us. We somehow ascribe maybe a [02:39] negative trait to the person it happened to. So you can [02:42] say, that would never happen to me, you know, how [02:45] forgetful are they? Because that would, I mean, I can [02:47] forget my phone in the car, but not a kid. I remember [02:52] my husband laying in bed one time the first week when [02:54] he was in and out of being catatonic, and, and, you [02:57] know, he said. Lindsay, we can't ever let anybody feel [03:00] this. We cannot let another family feel this pain, and I [03:04] can't get Ben back, but the one thing I can do is ensure [03:08] that other families like us don't lose their children [03:12] and have to go through this. 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