Father Saves Son After Seeing Story About Texas Boy’s Drowning

A father in Colorado was able to save his son's life from a dry drowning after seeing the story of a Texas boy's death.

After the tragic death of Baby Frankie in Texas, a father in Colorado was able to save his two year-old son due to the cautious words of Baby Frankie's parents. Staff Sgt. Garon Vega says he was able to recognize the symptoms of a dry drowning and rushed his son to the hospital.

Vega's two year-old son Gio went swimming last week and had swallowed a small amount of water. The young boy started showing symptoms similar to Baby Frankie like nausea, trouble breathing and a fever. Staff Sgt. Vega told his wife that the boy had swallowed water and his wife had also seen the story on ABC 13 about Baby Frankie's death. Better safe than sorry, the father took his son to the hospital. And he is thankful he did. The doctors told Staff Sgt. Vega that an x-ray of the boy's lungs showed fluid in them and h couldn't have survived through the night.

Staff Sgt. Vega wrote to ABC 13 to tell Baby Frankie's parents that their son saved their boy's life:

"I feel like I needed to reach out to the parents of little Frankie and tell them, I don't know how to word it, but their little boy saved our little boy's life. There was a purpose. It was an unfortunate thing that happened, but if I had not told my wife that he swallowed the water, and if she had not seen that article, I think we would've ended up dispelling it as a regular sickness."

Baby Frankie died of a rare occurance called a “dry drowning” or “secondary drowning” that typically affects young children. Water gets into either the lungs causing them to fill up with fluid or they breathe in the water causing vocal chords to spasm and close up not allowing them to breathe. The family are now warning other parents of the dangers of their children suffering from a dry drowning.