Not long after her mom died in January, Baby Shay, no bigger than a fist, lay on her great-grandmother Elmoyne Vance's chest, listening to her great-grandma's heartbeat.

For several hours the two lay together alone in a room and bonded. Vance, at that time, did not know how Shay was going to recover from her emergency delivery by cesarean-section.

But today, Baby Shay has not only survived a Dec. 30 car crash from which doctors removed her from her dying mom. She's also off a respirator, and has officially been adopted by another grandfather.

On top of that, she's big by Baby Shay standards, weighing in at slightly over seven pounds.

"To see that little girl mature, she is a miracle," Vance said. "It's a miracle."

Shalyn Davis, 17, a Twin Falls girl was injured in a Dec. 30 traffic accident near Jerome.

At St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center, an obstetrician, a surgeon, a pediatrician and an ER doctor launched an emergency cesarean section, delivering the baby that had been in Davis' womb for 6 ½ months. They placed her on an artificial breathing apparatus. Davis was then flown to a Boise hospital, where she died two days later.

Baby Shay underwent regular physical therapy to build fluid in her joints, Vance said.

She still needs to be fed once every three hours around the clock. As she grows, Baby Shay increasingly resembles her mother, Vance said.

"It's hard," Vance said. "You just take it day by day. You still think she is going to walk through that door any day, any minute. Between her little sister, my husband and I, we just work as a team. We have good days and we have bad days."

Cassidy Friedman can be reached at 735-3241 or cfriedman@magicvalley.com