( CNN ) The odds seemed almost impossibly stacked against baby Lily , but she survived . Rescuers found the toddler Saturday , hanging upside down in her mother 's car , which had flipped into a frigid Utah river a day before . If the wreck occurred when police believe it did , she may have been there for as many as 14 hours . Lily 's mother , Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck , died in the crash . She was 25 years old . How did her 18-month-old survive ? One of the biggest factors was the car seat . Lily was in the proper car seat for her age and the seat appears to have been properly attached . Even though the child was trapped and upside down , her body remained in the seat and above the frigid water . Doctors say that such low temperatures are dangerous , but would be even more so if the baby were wet . Dry cold temperatures are more survivable than wet cold temperatures . Ironically , the cold might have actually helped Lily survive , said Dr. Barbara Walsh , with the University of Massachusetts Medical School . `` She 's going to have a lower heart rate . She 's going to have a lower metabolism . She 's going to need less sugar , '' Walsh said . `` It 's almost like the body is sort of knowing that it needs to shut down to protect itself . '' A variety of other factors were also likely at play . `` We do n't know what time the child was last fed , when she drank . Given that it 's wintertime and she was in her car seat , she was probably wearing mittens , a hat . We tend to over bundle our children , so the fact that she was dry , she probably had on multiple layers because it 's winter , and there 's always a chance that she had just been sort of fed right before this happened probably all played a role , '' Walsh said . A final factor may have been that the girl , as a toddler , has baby fat -- a little extra insulation . If she had been an infant , it might have been a different story . `` It 's amazing . Children are very resilient , and I think sometimes we do n't realize how much they actually can withstand , '' said Walsh . CNN 's Ben Brumfield and Nadia Kounang contributed to this report .
Lily 's 25-year-old mother , Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck , died in the crash . The coroner ruled that she was killed by a drunk driver who had been drinking and driving for several hours before he crashed his car into her vehicle on Highway 101 near San Francisco.