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A 10-year-old boy saved his grandfather’s life when he went into a diabetic coma while driving at 70mph on a Georgia highway.
Drake Linn, 10, and Hugh Cox, 68, were transporting a boat on Interstate 75 in Dalton when all Cox fell unconscious behind the wheel.
The man is a diabetic and depends on insulin and normally wears a glucose-monitoring device that helps him keep track of his blood sugar. But on the day he went unconscious, he called a pharmacy to replace the device because it had stopped working.
The pharmacy told him there was a problem with his insurance and that he would need to wait for a new device to be approved. So when his blood sugar dropped, he didn’t notice and went into a diabetic coma.
Linn used his grandfather’s cellphone to call his mother, who instructed him to climb into the driver’s seat and pull the car over. The 10-year-old loves driving golf carts and ATVs and had some idea of how to get the job done.
The call dropped, but Linn drove until he was in a safe space.
“I was in the middle of the interstate and I had no idea where I was, so I drove about a mile until I knew where I was,” the youngster told The Washington Post. He said he knew he needed to go as fast as he could to get his grandpa help.
The child pulled over to a highway shoulder and tapped the brakes enough to stop the car but without causing the boat to crash into a car. He then called 911 and told the dispatcher what had happened and where he was.
“My papa is diabetic,” he said. “I pulled him over on the side of the road … we are right at Exit 320. He continued telling the dispatcher that he was “really scared” and didn’t want his grandfather to die.
Police and the boy’s mother rushed to the scene of the incident, along with an ambulance and firetruck. First responders gave the grandfather an IV drop and stabilized him within 20 minutes. His daughter then drove him home.
“I felt like that was probably the last time I was going to hear his voice,” Jessica Linn, the boy’s mother, told the outlet of the call. “It was just the most desperate and out-of-control feeling.”
She added: “My own child saved my own parent. It made my heart swell.”
Cox said he, too, was glad his grandson was there to help him. “I’m real proud of him,” he said. “He’s a good kid.”
Officials with the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office were so impressed with the boy’s quick thinking they honored him with a Citizen Service Award on July 17, the same day as the boy’s 11th birthday. He also got a hat, T-shirt and tickets to an Atlanta Braves game.
“We wanted to do something for him because he not only saved his life and his grandfather’s life, but also some motorists’ lives,” Sheriff Mitch Ralston said. “This kid is a hero, no doubt.”
