A 6-year-old boy from Louisiana is being hailed a hero this week after risking his own life to rescue his little brother and their 2-year-old twin cousins, Kaden and Isaac Kelley.
After spending the morning at church where the twins were dedicated to God, the family gathered in celebration.
The six-year-old, Branson Lee, along with his younger brother and two younger cousins, were all watching cartoons in the basement while their moms finished having a conversation upstairs.
According to the twins’ mom, Jeannie Kelley, Branson accidentally left the baby gate open while playing hide and seek. When he went to the bathroom, the tiny tots found a way out of it, which led to the only unlocked door on the ground floor.
After returning from the restroom, Branson realized his own little brother was on the first step of the pool. His discovery led him to find Kaden and Isaac, facedown and floating in the pool.
Branson pulled his brother from the top step. Then, without a second thought, the 6-year-old who can’t swim, jumped head-first into the shallow end and retrieved his baby cousins.
It all happened in just the short three minutes the kids were away from their mothers.
“He said he just dove in,” Courtney said of her son. “All he knew is he had to try to save them… It was a miraculous thing to know that at six years old he didn’t just scream and run away. He didn’t just ignore it or stand there in shock. He just immediately acted and allowed God to do the rest.”
Once Branson got the twins out of the water, he started screaming, which caught the attention of the rest of the family inside the house.
When they rushed out to find the babies lying lifeless on the side of the pool, “they were completely gone, there was no life left in them,” Jeannie recalls. “They were blue. They were limp. There was no heartbeat. There was nothing. My husband immediately fell down to his knees and started doing compressions and CPR. He is a first responder.”
About 30 seconds later, Kaden started to show a “slight response,” followed by Isaac.
By the time an ambulance arrived, both of the twins were “full-blown crying,” which was a good sign.
They were airlifted separately to the hospital in Shreveport.
“When we got into the helicopter Kaden sat up in my lap and said, ‘Hi Mama. I love you,’” the overwhelmed mom said while fighting back tears. “I was so blown away. Ten minutes ago, I thought I lost my baby and now he’s talking to me.”
Jeannie said she didn’t know it at the time, but while all of this was happening with her sons, her pastor had started a prayer chain with other parishioners of their church. Each repeated the same prayer she had been praying over her sons: “Bring them back and make them perfect, God.”
The next morning, both boys were playing and laughing as though nothing had happened to them. Doctors told the Kelleys it’s not something they see often, but were grateful for the twins’ resiliency.
“This is just a miracle,” Jeannie said. “I’m so overwhelmed that God was so good to us.”
