A body-camera video of the rescue of an 18-month-old toddler — who had been trapped upside down for 14 hours in a partially submerged car in a Utah river — has gone viral.
The footage, released a week after the dramatic rescue, shows emergency responders in their desperate attempt to free Lily Groesbeck from the car driven by her mother, 25-year-old Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck — who was killed when they plunged into the river on their way home to a suburb of Provo.
The body camera was worn by a police officer who arrived on the scene and joined the others in trying to gain access to the car, only to find they could not open its badly dented doors.
They rolled the car onto its side and then worked to free Lily, who was still strapped into her car seat in the back.
"Let's go, guys!" a man can be heard saying in the video as the rescuers began pushing the upside-down car onto its side. "C'mon!"
After rolling the car over, the rescuers were able to free the toddler from her car seat, where she had been suspended over the Spanish Fork River's icy water.
Jennifer Groesbeck was found behind the wheel of the car and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The water was so cold that seven of the rescuers had to be treated for hypothermia afterward.
After the toddler was freed from the car, she was rushed to a waiting ambulance and taken to a local hospital.
"She's definitely hypothermic," the officer can be heard saying as he carries her to the ambulance.
From the local hospital, Lily was flown by helicopter to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she was initially listed in critical condition.
Officials there say she regained consciousness and after treatment, was alert and healthy. She was released to her father and is back at home.
Much of the credit for Lily's survival goes to the car seat she was in, officials said, noting that it was the proper type of seat for her age, and was properly installed, which kept her safely above the freezing river water when the car landed on its roof.
Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck was the youngest of five siblings, and according to her family, she had hoped to become a medical assistant.
