Brave man saves 'limp' and 'already blue' toddler from a lake

A man felt his paternal instincts the moment he saw what was floating in the water.

32-year-old Angelo Mondragon was enjoying a Sunday afternoon swimming with his family in July 2015 at Fort Collins, Colorado.

As he was “walking around in the waist-deep water” at the Windsor Lake Swim Beach, he recalled that he felt something unusual that crush against his leg.

As shared by Liftable, Mondragon used his leg to kick up the object. What he saw next shocked him to his very core. Floating in front of him was a baby’s foot.

Talking to KUSA-TV, he said, “I just dove in and my parent instincts took over. I grabbed her out of the water and screamed ‘Whose baby is this?'”

Later on, it was found out that the little girl was 4-year-old Sitlali Hernandez. She was brought to the shore by Mondragon as he screamed for help. At that point, Hernandez was already turning blue and was not moving.

Luckily, there were two off-duty paramedics around the vicinity who performed CPR on the toddler. Eventually, help arrived and she was taken to a nearby hospital.

Afterward, Hernandez was transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, where Mondragon came to visit.

During his visit, he was told by the doctors that the child was already feeling better and that she was going to be just fine. Mondragon was relieved.

He also had a chance to talk with the child and her mother. The mother was incredibly grateful for what Mondragon did.

He was asked by the mother what made him decide to save her child. He said it was due to the special connection he has with his own family.

“When I saw that little girl’s toes, that became my baby. She was my family and I did everything that I could, that I would do for my family,” he said.

Mondragon also pointed out that if he wasn’t in the right place at the right time, things would have turned ugly and it probably would have turned into a search-and-rescue mission.