Boy, 7, Raced Down Busy Highway On Bicycle To Find Help After His Dad Went Into Diabetic Shock

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

When a 7-year-old boy found his father in a state of diabetic shock, he hopped on his bicycle and raced across a busy highway to find help - and, in a stroke of luck, he was spotted by his former school teacher who came to the rescue.

When Cameron Simoncic returned home from school last Wednesday, I found his father unconscious on the kitchen floor, I explained to WSPA.

"My dad has diabetes," the second-grader from South Carolina said. "Whenever he has these episodes and whenever it happens, his brain can't function."

Cameron's father was likely experiencing hypoglycemia, which is caused by extremely low blood sugar levels, according to Mayo Clinic. The condition leaves victims unable to wake or respond to sights, sounds or other stimulation and can be fatal if left untreated.

While trying to think of a way to help his father, Cameron tried to use a smartphone to call emergency services but couldn't find a way to unlock it. He then rushed to a neighbor's house to see if they could help, yet no one answered the door.

"I knocked on the doors but neither of them were home," Cameron told WSPA, "so I got on my bike and tried to ride to my grandma's."

In order to get to travel the five miles to his grandmother's house as quickly as he could, Cameron crossed over four lanes of traffic to reach a local highway. But it was then, by chance, that Cameron's former teacher, Keller Sutherland, spotted the young boy on his bike as she drove the same way.

“I just told my husband, I said, 'There's a small child on his bicycle riding down the road, I'm not sure what's going on, but I feel like I need to just turn around and see what's going on,'” she told the news station.

Sutherland, who taught Cameron the year before when he was a first-grader, pulled over and comforted her former student until help arrived.

"The ambulance came, the firemen came," Cameron said. "The firemen were really nice to me."

Cameron directed paramedics to his home, where they were able to give his father an injection to stabilize his blood-sugar levels, according to WSPA.

Sutherland told the news station that she had been questioning her desire to be a teacher leading up to that eventful day, but helping Cameron and his father led her to find her purpose once again.

“There's no doubt that God placed me where he did when I've needed me,” she said.