Most parents pray the day will never come when their heart stops with the fear that rises when someone tells them they may have lost a child.

Caroline and Fernando Beltran felt that pang, when they heard their 5-year-old daughter, Alejandra (Alex) Beltran, had almost drowned. This pang was soothed, however, when they heard of the heroics of the one who saved Alex, her 9-year-old brother, Carlos Beltran.

Surrounded by American Legion members, Auxiliary members, members of the community, his family and the sister he saved, Carlos received all the honor and recognition of a true hero during Oak Harbor’s American Legion Post 129’s Early Bird Dinner, Friday, Oct. 22.

When Rose Ring, unit president for the Auxiliary, asked the sergeant of arms to bring up Carlos and his family, she was on the verge of tears.

“This one here is very, very dear to us,” Ring said. “For those of you who don’t know Carlos and his family, Carlos was a little hero.”

Caroline Beltran tells what she knows and has pieced together of the story from doctors, emergency personnel, Carlos and Alex’s grandmother, Cecilia San Juan, who was with Carlos and Alex on the day of the near drowning, and the details that Carlos remembers.

A mother’s story

Caroline said she, her husband, Petty Officer 3rd Class Fernando Beltran, and their children moved to Oak Harbor in February of 2004. New to the area and busy with life and settling down, they had never explored Oak Harbor’s City Beach. So, when her mother, Cecilia San Juan, came to visit in September, she wanted to take the kids down to the park to swim and play, and since it was within walking distance of their home, on Sept. 1, that’s what they did.

At the City Beach Lagoon, Alex and her grandmother made sand castles and Carlos found a large piece of driftwood to float around on. Not an strong swimmer, but able to make do, Carlos kept swimming in and out between the shore and deeper water. Seeing the fun that Carlos was having, Alex and San Juan decided to join him, each taking a side of the log. Slowly, the trio made their way to deeper water, but, unfortunately, they did not know how deep it was.

Caroline said she heard that Alex tried to stand up on the log and it flipped over. As the log flipped, all the kids lost hold and Alex went under. Neither Alex nor her grandmother know how to swim, and the struggle that followed caused Alex to breathe water into to her lungs and San Juan to suffer a minor heart attack, which doctors discovered later at the hospital.

Reaching his sister, Carlos dragged her back to the shore by her swimsuit. Later when Caroline asked him if Alex was trying to help by kicking her legs or moving, he just shook his head and said she was on her belly, unmoving, with her eyes in a fixed stare.

At this part of the story, Caroline’s voice changes. Still in control of her composure, she continues on, but you can hear the emotions are still close to the surface, and the image of her baby in the water pulls at her heart and tightens her throat.

Unaware of the struggle his grandmother was having at the same time, Carlos’ focus was on getting his sister Alex out of the water. Upon reaching the shore, he said he tried to wake her up by patting her cheeks and calling her name.

Oak Harbor resident Michael Anderson was passing over the lagoon’s bridge and saw the struggles of San Juan and Carlos. He called for the lifeguards to come assist and ran down to Carlos and his sister.

Caroline said her mother and the kids were supposed to meet her for lunch. When they didn’t show up, she waited for a while and then decided to drive the route they would have walked to get to the beach. She didn’t see them along the way, so she drove to the beach. When she got to there, she saw the emergency vehicles and personnel. Knowing her kids had been at the beach, but not where, her first instinct was to see what happened, but she talked herself out of that because they should have left already and paramedics probably didn’t want an audience.

When Caroline returned to her car, she called P. W. Murphys, where she works, and asked if her mother had stopped by or called. When she heard that they hadn’t, she started to worry and said her stomach began to tighten.

“I had a weird feeling it was them,” Beltran said, referring to the scene at the beach.

She called a friend and told her about her mother not showing up and what she saw at the beach. She decided to go back to the beach and look again. At the beach, the last paramedics were leaving. She got out of her car and started jogging toward a police cruiser, but told herself, once again that she was over-reacting. So, she returned to her car and went home. There, she received a call that her two children and mother were indeed the ones at the lagoon, and now were at Whidbey General Hospital.

This is where Caroline’s voice picks up speed and the rush of memories and words compete to match the rush of emotion and adrenaline, that still flows strong when she recalls receiving the news of Sept. 1.

“I told myself that I’m never going to doubt my maternal instinct again,” she said.

From Whidbey to Children’s

Alex was semiconscious, unable to talk and on oxygen. The doctors at Whidbey General Hospital wanted to airlift her to Children’s Hospital in Seattle. They didn’t know how long she was without oxygen so they were not sure if she suffered brain damage. San Juan was suffering the after effects of her heart attack and coughing up blood, as she also had breathed water into her lungs.

Carlos was sitting by his grandmother when his parents arrived at the hospital, barefoot, without his shirt and wrapped in a blanket. Caroline said they saw him before he saw them and he was so calm and strong, watching over his grandmother. But as soon as he raised his head and saw his parents, he burst into tears and ran into their arms.

Caroline said she and her husband felt so proud of their son, but also sad they could not stay and comfort him, as they had to see Alex off in the helicopter and then drive to Seattle.

Caroline said she will spend a long time trying to thank Carlos for his bravery and strength that day. That hearing and seeing how Carlos reacted and behaved that day made her reflect on her own scattered reactions of panic and realize that he truly did act heroically, doing what needed to be done and seeing it through.

“I think the experience for him was sort of empowering,” she said. “I hope not too much — so that he’s not afraid of anything, but now he feels a little stronger.”

Caroline said the most positive thing that has come from this experience is the greater value she places in family and the little things in life.

“We’ve always been a close family, but we’ve become closer still. We value everything … we love our children so much, but now we hold them a little more closely — treasure the family.”

Beltran said Alex seems a hundred percent recovered, but her mother, San Juan, is still having minor troubles.

All in the call of duty

Alana Hutchinson, paramedic for Whidbey General Hospital and one of the medics who assisted with Alex, said she is convinced Carlos saved Alex’s life, by being cool, calm and collected. For his bravery, the hospital awarded Carlos with the Junior Paramedic Award.

“I want to say that the public is our first line of defense,” she said. “And if more people responded like Carlos, then I’m sure we wouldn’t have half so many lives to save.”

After that, Diane Starker, Auxiliary member and distinguished guest chairman, awarded Carlos with the National Children’s Youth Hero Award. Smiling and wiping tears, the audience rose to its feet before Carlos, his little sister and grateful parents.

“He’s kind of a humble kid,” Caroline said of her heroic son. “He’s pleased, but humble.”

Carlos sees his role in helping save his sister as just part of the responsibility and duty he has for her.