INDIANAPOLIS — A pregnant woman who was seriously injured in a crash on Indianapolis' southwest side early Saturday morning is providing insight into the terrifying moments when she was hit by a suspected drunk driver.
That crash, in the 1200 block of South Reisner Street, near Morris and Harding streets, killed a passenger in the suspect's car and sent 25-year-old Keyonna Hall, her 5-year-old nephew and 14-year-old cousin to the hospital.
Hall is still recovering at Eskenazi Hospital, both from injuries from the crash and the emergency cesarean section she said she was forced to have to save her baby's life.
"He's perfectly fine," Hall said, holding up her 2-day-old son, Syxx, who she calls a miracle.
"It was a miracle that he really lived, because I thought I lost my baby. All that blood that was coming out. I'm so glad he's OK," said Hall, describing the terrifying events that led up to her son's birth early Saturday morning.
"I saw the truck coming, but I thought the truck was going to stop," said Hall, who was driving on Reisner Street.
She said she was at a family barbecue Friday night and became the designated driver to go to the store because others at the party had been drinking.
Hall had her 14-year-old cousin in the front seat, her sister was in the back, with her 5-year-old son, Hall's nephew, next to her.
"We were two minutes from the liquor store, but we never made it, 'cause that man came out of nowhere and hit us," Hall said, explaining she was T-boned at a four-way stop by a man in a truck.
Investigators have not released his name, but say the suspect was allegedly driving under the influence when he crashed into Hall's car and then went on to allegedly hit six other vehicles parked along Reisner Street.
Police say the driver's 19-year-old passenger, Edras Hernandez, was thrown from the vehicle and died.
Hall doesn't remember much about the crash.
"I remember seeing the lights coming towards me," she said.
The next thing Hall remembers, she was in the back seat of the car.
"I'm sitting there, I was real disoriented. I remember that and I was having a hard time breathing, like I could not breathe and I was panicking cause I couldn't breathe. I couldn't get out of the car either, because the back doors have child locks on it," Hall recalled.
She remembers climbing into the front seat and over her cousin, who she said wasn't moving.
"I started to slap his face to kind of wake him up," said Hall.
"I was so scared. I kept hearing my sister screaming. She was looking for her son. He had gotten ejected from the car and I kept hearing her scream, 'My baby! My baby! My baby! Where's my baby?" Hall remembered hearing her sister yell.
Hall said police found the little boy in a ditch. He's still hospitalized with a fractured skull and broken hips.
Hall's 14-year-old cousin, who was in the front seat, has a broken shoulder.
Hall didn't know that at the time, though, because she was rushed to the hospital where doctors performed an emergency C-section to save her son's life.
"Once I heard him crying, I felt so much relief," Hall said, explaining that she's hoping to go home soon, but is trying to get all the rest she can right now.
So far, the suspect in this case has not been officially charged, but he was taken into custody at the scene.