A split-second decision by a complete stranger is the reason a family of four is alive today. On a quiet Sunday in Indiantown, Florida, what should have been a forgettable drive home from work turned into one of the most harrowing rescues Martin County has seen in recent memory. A mother lost consciousness at the wheel, her Jeep veered off the road, and within seconds, she and her three young children, ages 8, 2, and just 4 months old, were submerged upside down in a canal hidden behind heavy brush.
Casey Curtis was the man behind them. He noticed the vehicle in his rearview mirror, watched it suddenly accelerate and disappear off the side of the road, and did not hesitate for a single second. He pulled over, called 911, followed the tire tracks into the brush, and found the car before anyone else even knew something had gone wrong.
What he found when he got there was nothing short of a nightmare. The Jeep was flipped and submerged, the children were trapped inside staring at him through the water, and their mother, Shyenique Wilkins, was unresponsive, still buckled into her seat with her head underwater…