Sometimes everyday heroes come in small packages, but have an impact that’s larger than life. Find out how these brave children and teens saved other’s lives, rescued adults, thwarted kidnappings, and survived in the wilderness.
13-Year-Old Keeps Younger Siblings Alive In Jungle For 40 Days After Plane Crash
A 13-year-old Columbian girl made sure her little siblings survived in the Amazon jungle after their plane went down 40 days ago.
Lesly Mucutuy and her younger siblings Soleiny, 9, Tien, 4, and Cristin, 11 months, managed to live through a plane crash that took the lives of their mother and two other adults.
The children were miraculously found alive 40 days after a routine flight from Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare on a Cessna 206 disappeared from radars minutes into their 220 mile journey.
The Crash Site
Rescuers were able to locate the plane a few weeks later and only the adults’ bodies were found.
The wreckage gave them hope that the four children had lived through the crash, when they discovered the remains of partially-eaten fruit and child-size footprints.
At the time, Columbian President Gustavo Petro announced that children were safe, but quickly amended the statement to say there was evidence they could be lost in the forest.
The remote area of the Amazon jungle the plane crashed into is full of dangerous predators and rebel soldiers, and during their time missing had experienced several punishing storms.
The possibility that the children could be alive sparked a manhunt of 150 soldiers and 200 local indigenous residents through a 125 square mile swath of Amazon rainforest.
The Rescue Effort
Brigadier General Pedro Sanchez told The Guardian that he was confident the children for alive for a grim reason.
“This isn’t a needle in a haystack, it’s a tiny flea in a rug because they keep moving,” Sanchez explained. “But if, God forbid, they were dead we would have already have found them, because they would be still.”
During the 40 day hunt, the country’s military left food packages and bottled water in spots around the jungle.
They also airdropped 10,000 flyers in Spanish and the children’s native language Huitoto, which included survival tips and instructions to stay in the same area.
Searchers flew planes overhead with their grandmother’s voice calling out to them, as she is the one who has reportedly raised them and made sure they were trained to survive in their indigenous jungle community in Vaupes, Columbia.
The children are part of the Huitoto Indigenous group where they learn to hunt, gather, and fish in the jungle from a young age.
Finally Found 40 Days Later
The siblings were located on Friday, the fortieth day after the crash. They were bitten up by bugs, malnourished and dehydrated, but miraculously alive.
They were raised from the forest floor by a winch on a helicopter and taken to a military hospital for treatment. Doctors believe they will remain in the facility for treatment for up to three weeks.
Officials credit Lesley for keeping her younger brother and sisters alive. Her aunt, Damarys Mucutuy, said that she knew how to identify non-poisonous plants and how to care for a baby, who she was well versed in watching while her mother was at work.
“She gave them flour and cassava bread, any fruit in the bush, they know what they must consume,” Mucutuy detailed.
“It is thanks to [Lesly], her value and her leadership, that the three others were able to survive, with her care, her knowledge of the jungle,” Columbian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez remarked.
Their Mother’s Last Words
Manuel Ranoque, the father of the youngest two children, said that Lesly told him that his wife had survived the crash for four days before succumbing to her injuries. Prior to passing, she told the children to save themselves.
“They used what they learned in the community, relied on their ancestral knowledge in order to survive,” indigenous leader John Moreno stated.
“It is a joy for the whole country,” Petro said after their rescue. “They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history.”
‘Quick Thinking’ Seventh Grader Hailed As Hero For Stopping School Bus After Driver Passed Out
A Michigan middle schooler saved a busload of children when their driver lost consciousness as she was dropping them off at home.
13-year-old Dillon Reeves heroically prevented a catastrophic accident from happening when his bus driver fell ill and passed out while ferrying 65 children home from Carter Middle School on Wednesday.
A video of the incident showed the driver fanning herself with her hat, then calling in to the transportation hub to report that she felt ill and needed to pull over.
Dillon Comes To The Rescue As The Driver Goes Down
Before the driver could safely stop the bus, she passed out. Seconds later, Reeves, who was sitting in the fifth row, took action.
The bus was reportedly beginning to veer into oncoming traffic, when Reeves grabbed the steering wheel and guided the bus back into the proper lane, while stepping on the brake.
“Someone call 911. Now,” he yelled back to his panicking peers.
“A quick-thinking 7th-grade male student saw the driver in distress, stepped to the front of the
bus and helped bring it to a stop without incident,” Superintendent Robert D. Livernois wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
“The actions of the student who helped stop the bus made all the difference today, and I could
not be prouder of his efforts.”
In a press conference on Thursday, he said that the act “was an extraordinary act of courage and maturity” on Reeves’ part.
Livernois noted that the tween hockey player and band member “had the wherewithal to push the brake down slowly – likely in anticipation that the bus was full of passengers.”
Dillon Stops The Bus And Saves The Day
After stopping the bus, Reeves was assisted by two adults who witnessed the incident occur. A passerby hopped onboard to help with the driver, while a woman who had been driving behind the bus stopped and helped kids exit through the emergency door in the back.
The bus driver was taken to the hospital by ambulance and is currently in stable condition.
“It’s amazing, and this is like, such a good feeling to be so proud,” his mother said in an interview with Fox 2 Detroit.
Reeves will be honored by the mayor his hometown Warren with a resolution of appreciation “for his heroic actions that go above and beyond what most people would do.”
Watch A Teenage Umpire Save PeeWee Baseball Catcher From A Dust Devil
A teenager became an everyday hero when wild weather struck at the local baseball diamond. 17-year-old Aiden Wiles was umpiring a three-game youth baseball tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, when a dust devil formed out of nowhere behind home plate.
The Fort Caroline Athletic Association Indians had a batter up, when a funnel of sand and debris formed right on top of the Ponte Vedra Sharks’ catcher on Sunday afternoon.
Seven-year-old Bauer Zoya struggled to get out up from his catcher’s crouch as the wind whipped around him.
Bauer Takes Flight
“I couldn’t breathe that much,” Zoya said told local outlet News4Jax. “So I held my breath.”
“I feel like I couldn’t touch the ground,” he explained. “So I kind of lifted up a little bit.”
He eventually was able to stand, but was clearly disoriented as he struggled to get out of the tiny twister. That’s when Wiles rushed to the plate, snatched Zoya out of the wind funnel, and carried him to safety.
Wiles said he was afraid of the odd weather phenomenon, but knew he had to help the pint-sized player.
“I was worried about his safety because when I got taught, the players’ safety is always the first thing,” he remarked.
The Game Goes On
Once the weather cleared up, the Mother’s Day match-up was back on, and Zoya took his place at the plate after his dad helped flush the dust out of his eyes with a water bottle wash-out.
The player’s father, Brian Zoya, was thankful that Wiles sprung into action to save his son. “A kid that just had the presence in mind to just do that it’s just special to see,” he commented. “It was pretty cool to see yesterday. He had great parents raising him.”
Despite his ordeal, the kid catcher believes that he played better because of the experience, because he was able to catch a pop fly during the game.
What’s A Dust Devil?
Dust devil’s are common occurrences throughout most of the world and normally only last for a few minutes before disappearing.
They typically occur on clear days with light wind, when heat from the ground creates a localized air pocket that forms into a spiraling vortex.
At their worst, dust devils can reach diameters of up to 300 feet, become thousands of feet tall, rotate at wind speeds over 60 mph, and last for more than an hour. Lucky for Zoya, he was swept up into a relatively minor dust devil that dissipated after a few seconds.
Teenage Athlete Saves Elderly Man And Dog From Submerged Vehicle
A 17-year-old high school triple-threat athlete saved an an 83-year-old man and his dog from a Jeep that had plunged into the frigid water of a lake in Iowa.
Joe Salmon, a high school athlete, was ice fishing with his mother at East Okoboji Lake, when he witnessed a grey Jeep Wrangler drive onto thin ice and submerge.
The driver, 83-year-old Thomas Lee, was heading to his son-in-law’s fishing shack, but made the mistake of driving across the lake under the bridge, as ice formation under structures tends to be thinner due to heat absorption.
Salmon was watching a snowmobile race when the Jeep broke through the ice, and rushed over while he was on the phone with 911 and calling for others nearby to aid him.
Joe Comes To Lee’s Rescue
The teen football player, wrestler, and track star stripped off his fishing gear and signaled for Lee to get out of the Jeep, but he was unable to get out of the locked doors and closed windows.
“I took one step and (the water) went to about my chest,” he said to the Des Moines Register. “I got on the bumper of the rear and tried opening the back door, but all the windows were locked, but one guy gave me a knife and I hit the back glass a couple of times.”
He climbed up on the car’s back bumper and managed to break into the back window with the utility knife provided by one of the four other men that stood at the ice’s edge to help Lee.
Joe Gets Into The Jeep
Salmon shimmied in through the back window and emerged with Lee’s golden doodle, Cooper. He tossed the dog towards the waiting men, who pulled the pup to safety after he briefly hit the water.
“I didn’t really think about why or anything,” Salmon told The Washington Post. “I wanted to make sure he was going to be okay — to get him out. A full-size car going there, I knew it wasn’t going to end well.”
Salmon entered the Jeep again and climbed up to the front seat, where he had to free Lee’s foot from between a seat and the center console.
As the water level rose swiftly and Lee became stuck again, the quick thinking teenager folded down the seats and dragged him to the back, where another man was waiting in the water to pull him out.
Lee Is Saved By Bystanders
Lee was yanked out of the water by the bystanders, while Salmon climbed to the top of the car to leapt back to safety himself.
After Lee was out of the water, he and the other men were guided to a nearby store, where they were able to dry off and get warm.
Lee was transported to a local hospital, but neither he or Cooper sustained any injuries from the incident. The same can not be said for the Jeep, which was pulled out of the lake the next day. “I’m happy that he was OK and the dog was OK,” Salmon said about the ordeal. “It was just crazy at the time.”
Middle School Students Fight Off Kidnapper At Bus Stop
A Maryland man attempted to snatch a student waiting at a bus stop, but was thwarted by a few brave preteens.
Jamaal Germany, 30, was arrested for trying to abduct an unnamed middle school child aged 11 to 13, while they waited to catch their school bus to Redland Middle School on Monday morning.
The incident happened at around 7:20 in the morning, when Germany approached the child and dragged them towards a nearby apartment building.
When Kids Attack
A few brave fellow students became everyday heroes, when they ganged up on Germany and helped get their classmate, who was unharmed, out of his grip.
The group boarded the bus when it arrived and told staff at Redland Middle School about the attempted crime when they made it safely to class.
Faculty members reported the incident to the school’s Community Engagement Officer, which led to investigators from Montgomery County Police Department arresting Germany.
The school district warned parents about the incident, and informed them of an increased police presence at the bus stop where the almost kidnapping occurred.
“You don’t expect to hear things like that in general happening so close to home,” said Redland Middle School parent Jartu Toweh. “We know these things happen in the world, but it’s very unsettling when it happens close to your community.
According a neighbor, it’s not the first time that Germany has attempted to abduct a child. “I have a high school student, and she catches the bus early in the morning,” said a local mother. “Apparently, he was at the bus stop last week doing the same thing.”
Three unidentified neighbors said that Germany had “threatened and yelled at them” in the past few days.
Choking Hazard
Another heroic student was honored at Oklahoma’s Lakeview Elementary for saving the life of a classmate.
When classmate Cashton York started choking on a chicken nugget, eight-year-old Garrett Brown sprung into action and performed the Heimlich maneuver, successfully dislodging the food.
“Extremely scary to know in a matter of seconds my child could have choked to death on food, at school when you’re not around,” York’s mom remarked. “There are not enough words to be grateful for saving him.”
Brown was honored by the school and community for his life saving actions, which he had been trained to do by his father.
“My dad taught me. I was choking and he saved me and taught me to save someone else,” Brown commented.
