It was an ordinary day in July when Angelo Mondragon, a plumber from Fort Collins, Colorado, decided to spend some quality time with his family at Windsor Lake.
Little did he know that this seemingly routine family outing would turn into a life-saving mission.
As Mondragon was enjoying the cool waters of the lake, he felt an unusual sensation against his leg.
It was a feeling that was both intriguing and unsettling.
He decided to investigate, and what he discovered was far from ordinary.
“It felt like something you normally wouldn’t feel in the water,” he recalled.
“I did sort of a back kick to bring up whatever it was, and then I saw the bottom of a baby’s foot float up.”
To his shock, it wasn’t a fish or a piece of debris that had brushed against his leg.
It was a little girl, submerged and in dire need of help.
Mondragon, a father of three, instinctively reacted as any parent would.
“I saw just the bottom of her feet and then right then at that moment, that became my child, I reached in and I pulled her out like I would any of my babies,” he shared with CBS Denver.
Windsor Lake, despite being a popular swimming spot, does not have lifeguards.
To make matters worse, the little girl was not wearing a life vest.
As Mondragon brought her to the shore, he began to shout for help.
Bystanders quickly dialed 911, and fortunately, two off-duty nurses were present on the beach that day.
They immediately started administering CPR.
“I grabbed her and carried her limp body to the shore,” Mondragon recounted to The Coloradoan.
“The girl was already blue. She wasn’t breathing.”
The little girl, identified as 3-year-old Sitlali Fernandez, was rushed to the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland.
She was later transferred to Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colorado for further treatment.
A day later, a hospital spokeswoman reported that Sitlali was in “good” condition.
Mondragon, still shaken by the incident, visited Sitlali in the hospital on the same day.
Reflecting on the incident, he said, “If I was not in that right spot at the right time, it could have been a search and rescue mission. As I told the little girl’s mom, when I saw the baby’s toes that became my baby.”
Emma Hernandez, Sitlali’s mother, was overwhelmed with gratitude for the man who saved her daughter’s life.
“There’s no words how much I can thank you. You saved her.
You saved her.
You saved my baby,” she expressed when she met Mondragon, as reported by PEOPLE.
Sitlali had suffered from hypothermia and had fluid in her lungs.
Doctors were concerned about the duration her brain had been without oxygen, leading to her transfer to another hospital.
However, just three days after her near-fatal accident, Sitlali was back home, energetically bouncing on a trampoline with her siblings.
“She’s really strong, she’s really strong,” said Hernandez. “Her lungs are good, her heartbeat is good. Everything is good.”
In the aftermath of the incident, Mondragon took proactive steps to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
He set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for life vests for children who play at Windsor Lake but don’t have access to them.
The fund raised $605 that year, and Hernandez committed to collecting more.
Mondragon firmly believes that the entire incident could have been avoided if Sitlali had been wearing a flotation device.
Watch this heroic act in the video below!
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