When a Snowstorm Trapped Her Doctor Miles Away, One Brave Ride Saved Crystal’s Baby
In −24° wind chill, faith and determination brought baby Berkley safely home
When Crystal Gardner needed an urgent C-section, a raging snowstorm had her doctor stranded miles away. But he was determined to find a way to help her! Here, they share their story with Woman’s World.
“Do you think we’ll get there?” Crystal Gardner asked her husband, Craig, staring out her Shenandoah, Iowa window at the piling snow.
It was early Friday morning. Crystal was pregnant, but tests had revealed a circulatory problem with her baby. “She won’t make it to 40 weeks,” her doctor had advised, and with only days left, he scheduled an urgent C-section that couldn’t wait.
“I’ll dig us out,” Craig said, heading outside.
Meanwhile, miles outside of town, Chase Brown, M.D., stood on his porch. His Honda was buried beneath the snow, and even if he dug it out, he knew he’d get stuck on the dirt road into town.
Dr. Brown is the town’s family doctor. People depended on him, and he wasn’t going to let them down—especially Crystal. The doctor’s Honda didn’t have four-wheel drive, but he had an ATV his family used for farm chores.
“I can do this,” he vowed as he dug out the ATV and climbed aboard.
Meanwhile, Craig drove carefully down the icy roads. “So far so good,” Crystal said—until they reached a slippery hill. “We need to find a different way,” sighed Craig.
Dr. Brown relied on roadside trees to navigate the invisible dirt road. Each oncoming drift was a new battle. The wind chill was −24 degrees and his gloved hands were numb, but he pushed on.
Finally, when he reached the intersection where dirt turned to asphalt, he spotted a familiar face. Before leaving, he’d called his partner, Dr. Macleod, to discuss his plight, and she’d sent her husband in his pickup to help.
“Hop in,” he said as he rolled down a window, but the doc shook his head.
“I’ve seen several pickups abandoned roadside. I think I have a better chance the way I’m going,” he said, and drove into the blizzard.
“Is Dr. Brown here?” Crystal asked when she and Craig finally reached the hospital.
“We haven’t heard from him,” a nurse told her, and panic rose in Crystal’s chest.
Near town, Dr. Brown faced his biggest obstacle — a snowdrift towering over his ATV — but instead of slowing down, he hit the accelerator. The drift exploded, and a second later he was on the other side of it.
A few minutes later, he was walking through the operating room door.
“Ready to meet your daughter?” Dr. Brown asked a relieved Crystal.
The C-section went perfectly, and baby Berkley arrived loud and healthy.
“I always wanted to be a small-town doctor,” Dr. Brown explains. “It’s times like this that remind me why.”
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