‘Thank you for my son’: Family reunites with first responders who saved 4-year-old
By Alexa Velez
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COLLIER COUNTY, Florida (WBBH) — Collier County Emergency Medical Services honored first responders Tuesday during the Phoenix Awards ceremony at the South Regional Library, recognizing extraordinary lifesaving efforts across the county.
Among those honored were the EMS crews who helped save the life of 4-year-old Victor Valdez Jr., who survived a near-drowning in his family’s pool in The Estates in February.
Victor’s mother, Lilmary Delgado, said her son was clinically dead for 30 minutes.
Ten months later, she thanked the very responders who brought him back.
“Thank you guys, for everything you did for my son,” Delgado said.
Delgado described the moment she realized how close she came to losing her child.
“I think that’s the worst experience a parent can go through, seeing your son lifeless on the floor, and you feel like you cannot do anything to bring him back from that,” she said.
It was Victor’s older sister who first found him in the water. His father, Victor Valdez Sr., pulled him out and immediately began CPR.
“I didn’t give up. I didn’t stop doing CPR on him until the EMS got there and they took over. But it’s just something I wouldn’t wish upon anybody,” he said.
One of the EMS lieutenants who responded to Victor’s call, Moises Galicia, was among those honored at the Phoenix Awards.
“It’s a very emotional call. It can be very stressful, not just obviously for us as responders, but for the parents and everybody going through it. It’s like the worst day of their life. So what goes through my head is I need to keep myself tempered so I can make sure everybody else is tempered,” Galicia said.
While Victor continues to recover, his mother says that while he may never be the same, she remains deeply grateful for a second chance.
“I believe that gratitude and grief can coexist together,” Delgado said. “The son that I had died that day. I have a new son, but he’s not less loved. If anything, he’s more loved.”
By the numbers, from January through June 2025, Collier County EMS responded to 258 cardiac arrests. Thirty-six percent of those patients achieved a return of spontaneous circulation, far above the national average of less than 10%.
A total of 190 first responders were recognized at Tuesday’s ceremony for their contributions to these lifesaving outcomes.
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