A miracle baby. That's how family members describe little Cortney Raegann Smythe.
But the little girl the family calls Raegann is recovering, defying the odds — all while the man police believe is responsible remains on the run.
At first glance 16-month-old Raegann looks like your average toddler. But what the little girl has been through is anything but ordinary.
Six months ago,
Raegann was hospitalized, surrounded by stuffed animals, spending her first birthday on a ventilator.
The images were heartbreaking. She underwent multiple brain surgeries.
"She's had her eye surgery also to remove the blood from behind the eyes," Williams explained.
"She was on life support for quite some time. We were told by multiple doctors that she would not survive. That if she did survive that she would end up being as vegetable. She would not be able to see or talk or feed herself. Or move or crawl or do anything that a normal baby would be able to do," Williams said.
When we visited Raegann she was holding her own bottle and giggling.
"She is forming some words. She can say mommy, bauble, bye bye, she can do bye bye."
Rageann was at Le Bonheur Children's hospital for several months before she went to Atlanta for extensive therapy.
The details about what first landed the little girl in the ICU are vague.
A Memphis police report says officers first responded to Baptist Pediatric at the end of October when Raegann was unresponsive.
Raegann's mother was at work and left Raegann with her then fiance, Alex Harrison.
The report detailing Harrison told Raegann's mother he was in the shower and heard a loud noise. When he came out he said he found the little girl unresponsive. She was taken to the hospital but Harrison didn't go. However Raegann's mother says Harrison did actually go to the hospital.
The report also goes on to say Harrison told police a different account of what happened. He said he was in the living room with Raegann and his three-year-old child. He said he left, heard a loud noise and returned to find her crying. He picked Raegann up, and after a few minutes she stopped crying, then vomited and became unresponsive.
"Right now we really don`t have many answers. We're kinda like blinded to what's going on," Williams said.
Since Raegann's injury the family says they haven't heard much about the investigation.
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