Diana Zoga

McKinney Firefighters Reunited With 4-Year-Old They Helped Save

Wednesday night, a 4-year-old boy and his family visited the McKinney firefighter-paramedics who helped him during a devastating call.

On June 8, a vehicle in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant ran over four-year-old Julio Cantu. It was an accident that his family said broke Cantu's femur and left him with a small skull fracture.

His mother, Arlene Cantu, said first responders arrived quickly and worked to keep her and her son calm during the ambulance ride to a Dallas hospital.

"They were talking to him, to me," Cantu said.

"They were there with him until the doctors told them: we don't need anything else from you, you can go," Cantu added.

The rescuers made such an impression, Cantu said her son woke up in the hospital with a new obsession.

"The first thing he asked for was a fire truck and an ambulance, so he knows who helped him," said Cantu.

Julio was carrying his toy fire truck and ambulance into Fire Station 8 on Wednesday as firefighters showed him around the station and let him sit in a fire truck.

"I'm a father, my partner is a father. Any kid calls stick out in your mind," said Erick Hall, one of the firefighters who was on the call.

He said it's rare firefighters learn what happened to a patient after they're taken to the hospital. Hall said he was happy to hear Julio's prognosis is good.

"It's awesome to see he's in that kind of health, those kinds of spirits. He's not letting this injury get him down," Hall said.

Julio has been in a lower body cast since the accident, but his family said doctors expect to remove the cast Thursday.

"God was really watching over him because it's just a broken leg and it could have been a completely different outcome," said Cantu.

She said her son has been asking to see the real-life heroes who helped him. He shyly thanked them for fixing him "when I was broken".

"I know they go through a lot and it's not always a happy ending, but I just wanted to show them we appreciated them and he was good," Cantu said.

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