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Heartbroken Father’s Dry Drowning Warning Saves Two-Year-Old’s Life: ‘Their Little Boy Saved Our Little Boy’

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 06:52 PST, Jun 9, 2017

The tragic death of a four-year-old from dry drowning saved the life of another boy who nearly died from the same symptoms.

A heart-wrenching story of four-year-old Frankie Delgado, who died of dry drowning nearly a week after swimming, has been all over America’s headlines lately.

And a Colorado father of two-year-old son Gio Vega couldn’t be more thankful to the family of Frankie for making the story about his tragic death go viral.

Frankie died of dry drowning, also known as secondary drowning, earlier this week after he had suffered from symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and grasping for air, for six days. Frankie’s family, who had never heard of dry drowning before, thought his symptoms were part of a regular sickness.

Without getting a proper treatment from dry drowning, Frankie died in his bed, and his parents found out about the existence of such a thing as dry drowning too late.

The Delgado family went public with their tragic story in order to raise awareness about dry drowning and to educate other parents about its symptoms. And it looks like they have already saved at least one life: two-year-old Gio Vega from Colorado.

Gio Vega’s father, Garon, got in touch with ABC 13 on Friday to reveal that he had managed to save the life of his son, but only thanks to Frankie’s heart-wrenching story.

Garon said he had read an article about Frankie dying of dry drowning, and after noticing that his own son had similar symptoms, he immediately rushed him to a hospital. It was Frankie’s father’s dire warning to other parents to be vigilant about secondary drowning symptoms that spurred this grateful father to seek medical attention for his young son.

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And the Colorado father was right: his son Gio Vega was indeed suffering from dry drowning symptoms and doctors made him speechless when said the boy would not have made it through the night if he didn’t bring him to the hospital.

Reaching out to ABC 13, Gio Vega’s father used the opportunity to thank the Delgado family for making the tragic story of four-year-old Frankie go viral.

“If I had not told my wife that [Gio] swallowed the water and if she had not seen that article, I think we would’ve ended up dispelling it as a regular sickness.”

Dry drowning can occur hours or days after the child inhaled water through the nose or mouth, and can cause symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, fever, mood swings, and struggling for breath, according to USA Today.

The tragic death of Frankie helped save the life of Gio Vega, who – if it wasn’t for Frankie’s story – would have probably died of dry drowning. But the Delgado family has helped saved at least one child following the tragic death of their own son.

And this is something Frankie’s father emphasized on when he spoke to People Magazine, unable to hold back his tears over the tragic death.

Delgado warned that dry drowning is “real” and it “could happen to anyone.” The Delgado family brought as much attention to their story in the media as they could, and it definitely paid off.

The fact that Frankie’s story saved the life of Gio Vega launched a chain reaction, which could potentially save even more lives and prevent children all around the country and beyond from dry drowning.

Frankie died six days after his family went on a swimming trip to Texas City Dike on May 28 ahead of Memorial Day. The Delgado family launched a GoFundMe page in order to raise money for funeral expenses.

Frankie’s funeral will take place at Compean Funeral Home on Saturday. It’s unclear if Gio Vega’s father, whose child’s life was saved after reading the article about Frankie, will attend the funeral.

[Featured Image by Nikolia Apostolou/Shutterstock]

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