They would later call it a miracle that no one died, but the word felt too small for what was left behind. At Phoebe Putney Memorial, the roles were reversed: medics and EMTs stared up at fluorescent lights, IVs dripping where radios once hung. The newborn slept between checkups, a fragile, breathing reminder of what might have been lost.

Outside, the skid marks faded under passing traffic, but not from memory. Investigators filed reports, yet no document could capture the shiver in a nurse’s voice or the way a seasoned paramedic flinched at distant sirens. Online, the county’s grief and gratitude tangled together, demanding change and mercy in the same breath. In the end, nine survivors carried a shared revelation home: the people who race toward our worst days are just as mortal, just as breakable, as the lives they fight to save.