In an “extraordinary” act of bravery, a brave 10-year-old boy took the wheel and led them to safety after his grandfather lost consciousness while driving at 70mph on a Georgia highway.
On July 15, Little Drake Lynn was sitting in the passenger seat of his grandfather’s pickup truck, towing a boat he’d just picked up from a repair shop on Interstate 95 in Dalton. According to the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office.
His “dad”, 68-year-old Hugh Cox, was on the phone with a colleague when he suddenly stopped talking and lost consciousness. The Washington Post.
“I didn’t know what was going on and I was scared,” Drake told the paper.
Cox’s colleague, who remained on the phone, told Drake to call his mother, Jessica Lin, who instructed her son to jump onto his grandfather’s lap and pull over the car.
Then the phone was hung up.
“I felt like this was probably the last time I’d ever hear my son’s voice,” Lin told The Washington Post about her son. “It was just a feeling of hopelessness and loss of control.”
Cox is a diabetic and relies on a glucose monitoring device to control his blood sugar levels, but the device stopped working the day before the incident.
When the grandfather called the pharmacy to have the medication replaced, he was told there was an insurance issue that had to be resolved first, according to the paper.
Unaware that his blood sugar levels were dangerously low, he fell into a diabetic coma.
Drake’s mother said he had experience driving ATVs and golf carts on their farm in Calhoun, Georgia, which may have given him the confidence to maneuver on the highway.
“I was in the middle of the interstate and I didn’t know where I was, so I drove for about a mile until I realized where I was,” Drake told The Washington Post.
He said all he was thinking about was getting his grandfather into an ambulance to save his life.
He was able to slowly pull over to the side of the road without damaging the boat he was towing and called 911, explaining that Cox was diabetic.
“I’m really scared,” Drake told the dispatcher, crying. “I don’t want him to die.”
Paramedics and Lin quickly arrived on the scene. Paramedics gave him an IV drip, and after about 20 minutes he began to feel better, he said.
Cox quickly recovered and her daughter gave her a ride home.
He called the incident one of the worst he’d ever experienced and acknowledged that it could have ended in tragedy if it hadn’t been for his grandson.
“Whenever I go boating, I go by myself. I asked him if he wanted to go, and off we went,” Cox said. “It was good to have him with me.”
“I’m really proud of him,” Cox added. “He’s a good kid.”
“The behavior of that young boy is simply abnormal,” said Sheriff Mitch Ralston of the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office.
According to The Washington Post, Drake was honored by the sheriff’s office in a ceremony on July 17, which coincidentally happened to be his 11th birthday. In addition to the citizenship service award, he received an Atlanta Braves cap and shirt, and four tickets to a Braves game.
“We wanted to do something for him because not only did he save his life and his grandfather’s life, he saved the lives of several other drivers,” Ralston said. “This kid is definitely a hero.”
But Drake’s parents weren’t surprised by their son’s bravery.
“My child saved my parent,” Lin said. “It really touched my heart.”
