"You can breathe, baby": off-duty North Texas firefighter saves 3 children on 4th of July
"I just kept saying, you can breathe, baby, you can do it, you can do it, I got you," said Jason Horne.
Not words any father wants to say out loud. It's definitely not where Jason Horne saw his Fourth of July going when he took his family to Alvarado Park Lake.
"We saw a pontoon boat and a jet ski just kind of floating off to the side and they were very frantically waving people down. That's when I saw the boat that was overturned," said Horne, "When I got closer, they said, 'Our babies are under there.'"
Horne didn't hesitate for a second.
"I took my hat, my glasses off, and I dove in, swam up to the side of the boat, and started looking for kids," he said. "Held my breath, went under the boat, reached up, grabbed and felt around, felt a life jacket, pulled it down, and I knew I had a person, pulled the first little boy out."
"Went directly back under the boat and I felt a limb, I felt a leg. So I grabbed the leg, pulled down. We came out and it was the little girl. So picked up the little girl, pulled the little girl up; she was unconscious. She was unresponsive; she wasn't breathing; honestly, I couldn't tell if she had a pulse or not. I push her up on top of the actual capsized boat, and I started doing compressions," said Horne.
Finally – the little girl started breathing.
But Horne didn't stop to rest after saving two children. The off-duty Midlothian Firefighter went back into rescue mode.
"I had asked when I got there how many children and they said two and I was relieved. They said two kids, I got two kids, we're good. And then the gentleman who was on the jet ski said, 'My son was still under there,'" said Horne.
He dove back underwater and, with the help of another boater, found the third child.
"When they climbed up on the side, it tilted up and he came out," he said, "Had that little boy in my hand and we got the rope off him, both of us got up on the front of the boat and I started doing CPR on that little boy. He was pulseless and apneic. He wasn't breathing."
Finally, he started breathing. Three kids, now pulled from the water. Thanks to the actions of a dad who never hesitated to do the right thing.
"My kids are under there, you got to go get them. There's no, there's nothing to think about," said Horne.
