Hugh Cox with his grandson Drake Linn. When Cox fell unconscious while driving on the highway on July 15 in Georgia, Drake pulled the car over. Photo / Family
Hugh Cox with his grandson Drake Linn. When Cox fell unconscious while driving on the highway on July 15 in Georgia, Drake pulled the car over. Photo / Family
Drake Linn was riding in the passenger seat of his grandfather’s ute last week, going about 113 km/h as they towed a boat along Interstate 75 in Dalton, Georgia.
The grandfather, Hugh Cox, 68, was chatting on the phone with a co-worker when suddenly something went wrong. Cox stopped talking and looked dazed. Drake called out to his grandfather and asked whether he was all right, but Cox did not answer. He was no longer conscious.
Cox’s co-worker, who was still on the line, told Drake to use his grandfather’s cellphone to call his mother. Jessica Linn instructed her son to climb onto his grandfather’s lap, take hold of the wheel and pull over to the shoulder.
“I felt like that was probably the last time I was going to hear his voice,” Linn said of her son. “It was just the most desperate and out-of-control feeling.”
Cox is an insulin-dependent diabetic and always wears a glucose-monitoring device, which helps him control his blood sugar.
The morning of the July 15 incident, Cox called his pharmacy to have his device replaced because it had stopped working the evening before. The pharmacist told him that there was an insurance issue and that he needed to wait for it to be cleared.
Hugh Cox and Drake have a close relationship and spend a lot of time on the farm together. Photo / Jessica Linn
As a result, Cox didn’t realise that his sugar was rapidly dropping until it was too late. He went into a diabetic coma - which can lead to death if left untreated.
“When your sugar starts getting low, you get confused. It really went low on me in a hurry,” said Cox, who had just picked up his boat at a repair shop in Dalton.
“I didn’t know what was going on, and I was scared,” Drake said.
Drake lives on a farm in Calhoun, Georgia, in the United States, and has driven golf carts and ATVs, his mother said.
“There’s always an adult watching, but he drives alone,” Linn said.
Drake’s experience behind the wheel gave him the confidence to take over his grandfather’s vehicle. He sat on his lap and manoeuvred the car on the busy highway.
“I was in the middle of the interstate, and I had no idea where I was, so I drove about a mile until I knew where I was,” Drake said.
He had one thought going through his head: “I’ve got to go fast and get an ambulance here before he is about to die.”
Drake with his parents, Adam and Jessica Linn, and his sister, Caroline, 6. Photo / Family
He pulled over to the shoulder of the highway and tapped the brakes enough to stop the car, but still gently so the boat didn’t crash forward, he said. He then called emergency services and told the dispatcher what had happened and where he was.
“My papa is a diabetic,” he said, according to a recording of the call. “I pulled him over on the side of the road … we are right at Exit 320.”
“I’m really scared,” Drake, who was in tears, told the dispatcher. “I don’t want him to die.”
Police quickly arrived at the scene, followed by Linn, who made her way there as soon as her son called in a panic. An ambulance and fire engine came, too.
Although Drake was relieved that help had arrived, he said, “I was still kind of shaky”.
Rescue workers gave Cox an IV drip, and, within about 20 minutes, he said, he started to feel better. Once he was stable, his daughter drove him home.
“My sugar has got low on me before, but that’s the worst it’s ever been,” Cox said.
He knows that had his grandson not been there with him, things could have taken a tragic turn.
“I usually go by myself when I pick up a boat … I asked him if he wanted to go, and we took off,” Cox said. “It was good I had him with me.”
“I’m real proud of him,” Cox added. “He’s a good kid.”
The Gordon County Sheriff’s Office gave Drake a Citizen Service Award on July 17, which happened to be his 11th birthday. Photo / Jessica Linn
Drake’s parents said they weren’t surprised by his quick thinking.
“He’s a unique little person,” his mother said. “If I could count on any 10-year-old in the world in that exact situation, it would be Drake.”
“My own child saved my own parent,” Linn continued. “It made my heart swell.”
Officials were stunned that such a young person had the capacity to calmly navigate a crisis.
“That little boy’s actions were just extraordinary,” said Sheriff Mitch Ralston of the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office. “This is not something that happens every day. For him to pull that off was just amazing.”
Ralston honoured Drake for his bravery and rapid response with a Citizen Service Award on July 17 - which, coincidentally, was Drake’s 11th birthday. Officials also gave him a hat and a T-shirt, plus four tickets to an Atlanta Braves baseball game.
“We wanted to do something for him because he not only saved his life and his grandfather’s life, but also some motorists’ lives,” Ralston said. “This kid is a hero, no doubt.”
When asked whether he has advice for others who find themselves in emergency situations, Drake said yes.
