An 18-year-old man thanked the Miami-Dade firefighter who saved his life when he was a toddler, and told her he wants to follow in her footsteps. The reunion took place Thursday at the chapel of Palmer Trinity School in Southwest Miami-Dade.
George Montes Jr. was 3 years old when he nearly drowned. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units and police officers responded. Firefighter Mary Gavin said she and her colleagues were on the road when the call came in. They pulled Montes from the water, and officers performed CPR. Gavin said he had no heartbeat when he was placed in an ambulance, but it returned at the hospital. He recovered.
Gavin said calls involving children stay with first responders, because not every child pulled from a pool survives.
During the service, Montes read from a script he had prepared over several months. He credited Gavin with saving his life. “I wouldn’t be here up today if it wasn’t for you,” he told her.
Montes said he once expected to build his future around basketball, but several knee injuries pushed him to look for something else. He said he found firefighting and fell in love with it. He has already started working toward that goal, including looking into the fire academy.
The story is a reminder of how quickly a rescue can change a family’s life, and of the work fire and police crews do when a child is pulled from a pool.
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