Mother saves herself, child after car was swept away by flooding

A woman from Ava is thanking God for giving her the strength to swim her baby to safety after the car they were riding in was swept off a low-water bridge in Ozark County.

It happened before daybreak near Theodosia at Haskins Ford Crossing Thursday morning. The mother, her child, and their friend waited on help for hours, suffering from hypothermia.

"I just kept praying the whole time," 30-Year-Old Casey Shelton said. "I kept praying, kept praying until someone came along."

Shelton estimates they were waiting in the cold for about five hours, after she managed to rescue herself and her son from the submerged car.

“I managed to get the window open to get out and I swam out and opened the back door. By feeling, because it was dark I couldn't see anything, I felt and got the baby unbuckled and got him out and above water," Shelton said.

She then swam her six-month-old child about 75 feet, in the dark, to the shore. In the frigid water, her muscles stiffened and she became exhausted.

“I almost tired out before I got to the bank. I prayed for God to give me the strength to get to the shore. I did. I couldn’t see the baby, but I knew he was struggling to breathe because he had went underwater more than once," Shelton said.

As the sun came up, she continued to do everything she could to keep him warm.

“I just spent the whole time looking at him and trying to keep him alive," Shelton said. “I ended up having to give him mouth to mouth because he was trying to die on me."

She and her friend, who was the driver of the car and had swam to the other bank, yelled for help.

When rescuers arrived, it wasn’t looking good for baby Chaseton.

“I thought, oh my god, she’s holding a dead baby. Of course, that takes you back a little bit," Allen Edgington, a volunteer with Theodosia Area Volunteer Fire Department, said.

He took the baby to deputies, who cares for him, and he stayed with Shelton. Responders from area departments showed up and more help continued to arrive, including three helicopters to take the patients to a Springfield hospital.

"Two helicopters landed there and then one landed on that side," Dr. Aaron Newton said.

Dr. Newton is a medical doctor, who is also a Theodosia Area Fire Department volunteer. He said the patients were all showing signs of hypothermia.

"As the brain becomes more hypothermic, you get a little bit more confusion, the muscles start to stiffen up," Dr. Newton said.

The child was in the most immediate need of care.

Cpt. Tracy Meal, also volunteer with Theodosia Area Volunteer Fire Department, said Chaseton was lethargic and she couldn't find a pulse. She did all she could to warm him up.

"I just used skin to skin contact and then we bundled him up some more," Cpt. Meal said.

Chaseton was put on a ventilator at the hospital. With his mamma by his side, he is doing better than doctors expected.

"He has made so much progress," Shelton said.

That news is relief not only to his family, but to the responders who helped get them to medical care. However, the rescuers credit a mother's strength for saving her child.

"Had she not done that, the baby would have drowned," Cpt. Meal said.

Meanwhile, Shelton asks for only one thing for her baby boy.

"I'd like everyone to pray for my son," Shelton said. "I'd like to see him laugh again."

Shelton says she hopes her experience will lead to low-water crossing signs being posted to warn people about the potential danger at that bridge.