While 37% of American families say that taking vacations makes them happy, one family’s summer vacation almost ended in tragedy. Fortunately, three Arizona men stepped in to find and rescue a stranger’s young son who was buried alive beneath the sand on a California beach.
Jesse Martin and his two uncles, Stuart and Steven Frost, jumped into action when they heard a woman screaming for her missing two-year-old son.
“Nobody was doing anything,” said Stuart. “So I said to my brother Steven and a few family members, ‘Let’s go and help this lady.’”
The woman and her family had been sitting next to two large holes. She told the three men that she had been applying sunscreen to her other child, turning her back to her son, Brooks. Moments later she realized he had disappeared.
Noticing the holes, the men began to dig. “When I got in there and dug a couple of handfuls, I ended up feeling him and finding him. So I dug him up and picked him up outside the hole,” Jesse said. “His face was real pale, real blue, real lifeless. It was definitely a sick feeling.”
Steven, a dentist, began CPR immediately. “We were cleaning out the sand out of his mouth, just making sure nothing would go down his lungs,” said Stuart. “When Brooks finally said the word, ‘Mom,’ that’s when I knew we were OK. And it was pure relief.”
The boy was taken to a nearby hospital, and hours later the grateful family contacted the three men and showed them a picture of a smiling Brooks; he was expected to make a full recovery.
The Frost brothers, both dentists, credit the state of Arizona for its regulation that requires all dentists to be CPR certified. “For 22 years I’ve taken CPR certification classes and practiced this type of life-saving skill, but I’ve never, ever had to use those skills,” noted Steven.
