Canton man saves drowning toddler at FL beach

On October 1, Dan King was enjoying a day at the beach in Bill Baggs State Park in Key Biscayne, Florida. King spent the morning swimming and soaking up the sun with his friend Rachel Molk, whom he was visiting, and her mother Elyse. The 2009 Canton High graduate and University of Central Florida sophomore was not betting on becoming a hero.

Canton native Dan King with Mia and her mom

Before noon, the group decided to leave the beach and grab a bite to eat. While waiting for Elyse to exit the water, King noticed a small girl floating in the ocean ten feet away from him.

At first, King thought the child was just trying to hold her breath. He started to walk away, but the girl’s positioning unsettled him. She had begun to curl into a u-shape, and was sinking further into the water. King turned around and ran over to the girl. After seeing that she was non-responsive, he picked her up and rushed her back to the beach.

“By the time I got her to the beach, she was foaming from the mouth,” said King. “She was going in and out of consciousness; she would be crying and then totally silent.”

With no lifeguards on duty at the beach, the girl’s aunt frantically performed CPR. Other beachgoers rushed down the shore on rented ATVs to an EMT stand located on the other end of the key. After about ten minutes on the beach, Key Biscayne Fire Rescue arrived on the scene and rushed the girl, 3-year-old Mia Perez, to a local hospital where doctors were able to restore the girl to a stable, but critical condition.

Although by all accounts he saved Perez’s life, King downplayed his status as a hero. “If you see a girl floating face down in the water, that’s just what you have to do,” he said. “I didn’t even think about it.”

King and his party were the last group of people on the beach before it turned into the open ocean. Perez had already drifted 30 feet away from the beach and her family when King noticed her. Had it not been for his presence at that part of the beach at that exact moment in time, she would have floated out to sea.

“It was just the classic case of right place, right time,” said King.

King’s flight back to school in Orlando was scheduled for the afternoon after his act of heroism. Just before leaving for the airport, he received a call from Perez’s family. They asked him to come to the hospital so they could express their gratitude.

“I had to catch a flight, so we thought that there wasn’t going to be enough time,” said King. “But then we realized that the hospital she was in is right on the way to the airport.” The hospital’s location was the last of a string of fortuitous coincidences tying King to the Perez family.

When he arrived at the hospital, King was besieged by Perez’s relations. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents alike crowded around to thank him for his heroic deed. The family of Cubans spoke very little English, but King, a Spanish minor at UCF, was able to understand when it counted.

“They thanked me over and over,” said King. “They told me that I was a part of their family forever.”

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Posted by Danny Joseph on Oct 12 2011. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.