Dad saves son's life after recognising 'dry drowning symptoms' from viral story

Doctors say he wouldn’t have survived the night

Sarah Young
Thursday 27 July 2017 11:11 BST
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A dad has saved the life of his two-year-old son after recognising the symptoms of ‘dry drowning’ from a news story.

After watching the family of Frankie Delgado, aged four, speak about their son who tragically died after inhaling water while swimming, Garon Vega from Colorado knew that he needed to take his little boy to the hospital.

Since swallowing water during a trip to the community pool last week, Vega’s son, Gio, began to suffer similar symptoms to Frankie including a fever and trouble breathing.

Garon Vega took his son Gio to hospital after recognising symptoms of dry drowning (Image: Handout)

And, an X-ray confirmed that there was indeed fluid on the toddler’s lungs. A doctor said that it was a good thing Vega brought his son to the emergency department as it was likely he would not have survived the night.

The quick-thinking father has since thanked Delgado’s parents for speaking out, saying that if it wasn’t for them, he probably wouldn’t have taken Gio to the hospital.

“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,' Vega told ABC 13.

“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.”

A rare medical condition that predominantly affects children, dry drowning happens when someone breaths in water. While the fluid never reaches the lungs, it does chord the vocal chords to spasm and tighten, eventually shutting down the airway.

This was, unfortunately, the case for Baby Frankie who passed away just days after swimming with his family in Texas.

Following the trip, the four-year-old began to complain of stomach pains which was shortly followed by vomiting and diarrhoea, but while he appeared to get better, things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

Frankie's parents bravely shared the tragic story of their son's death (Image: ABC)

“Out of nowhere, he just woke up. He said, “ahhh,”' his father told KTRK-TV.

“He took his last breath, and I didn’t know what to do no more.”

The young boy was quickly rushed to the hospital where he sadly later died.

“When she came in, she told us it's what's called dry drowning. His lungs were full of fluid. There was nothing else they could do for him,” Tina Delgado said.

Four-year-old Frankie Delgado sadly passed away this month from dry drowning

While dry drowning symptoms happen immediately, there is a similar condition called ‘secondary drowning’ that can take up to 24 hours to develop.

Here, water gets into the lungs and starts to build up over time before eventually making it impossible to breathe.

However, symptoms of both conditions are exactly the same and include coughing, chest pain, trouble breathing and fatigue.

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