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| Deputies helped save a Florida woman and her child after a domestic argument led the woman to crash into a lake. (Photo credit: Jim Donnelly) |
A buoyant disposable diaper may have saved the life of a Florida toddler after an accident that killed the girl's father, police say. The 3-year old's parents had just left a gas station fighting and arguing, with the father punching the mom, who was in the driver's seat in the face. The constant blows forced 33-year old Catherine Copeland to lose control of the car, crashing it off an embankment and landing them in a nearby lake.
Luckily, gas station attendees had already called police after witnessing the domestic violence incident while the couple drove off and a deputy was able to jump in the water to save the mom. Shortly thereafter, he said he saw this diaper bop up in the water
“All of a sudden, this little thing popped up like a cork,” Deputy Cazi Navarro told the Sun Sentinel.
“As soon as she got to the shore, they took her from [Navarro's] arms and someone started doing CPR,” said Keyla Concepcion, the public information officer for the Broward Sheriff’s Fire Rescue. “People were there on standby to whisk her away to the hospital.”
The mom and baby survived though the little girl is in critical but stable condition. Dad Sandro Michael, 27, died.
There was apparently a restraining order against the dad. Now some people, who normally criticize a parent for not being able to potty train a three year old and wonder if the girl was floating in the water she may not have been in a car seat like the law requires. However, in this case, all of those things may have saved this little girl's life.
Thank God for small blessings, eh?
