63-Year-Old Woman Undergoes Surgery After Car Slams Into Her North Miami Beach Home

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A woman is badly hurt in the hospital after somebody drove into her house and crashed right into her bedroom before fleeing the scene.

Relatives confirmed to CBS4 News that Philomena Celestin, 63, was trapped underneath rubble after a car slammed into her North Miami Beach home, where her sister also lives, early Saturday morning.

"She was crying but there's nothing I can do and then I called 911," Elianne Benoit said.

Benoit was in a bedroom nearby.

"The wall was on the bed and my bed in the other room," she said.

She escaped with a banged up lip and a scratch on her hand. Benoit's daughter, who has special needs, is also OK.

"I was sleeping. Then, I heard boom, boom, boom," Benoit said.

The car barreled through the wall damaging furniture at the home along NE 8th Ave. near North Miami Beach Blvd. The car was completely inside the bedroom. Clothes and boxes were left scattered everywhere. That is where the 63-year-old Celestin was badly hurt while sleeping.

Now, police are looking for the person responsible for damaging her home of two dozen years.

"The driver was inside the car, when we looked," said a friend who lives nearby. "But there was no driver in there."

Police said after the crash the driver took off running. It's still unclear who was behind the wheel.

Friends and family are leaning on people in the area for help.

"Nothing we can do. So, we don't know what happened. So, we will see," he said.

A half-mile away, on November 11th, police investigated a jeep crashing into the convenience store at a gas station. The driver in that unrelated crash was hurt.

Now, boards are covering the spot of interest to investigators from another crash involving a car going into a building. As for the family, they're thankful everyone survived.

"I pray to God and I said thank God for us," Benoit said.

Relatives told CBS4 that Celestin went into surgery Saturday. It's still unclear how she is doing.