An 11-year-old boy was honored for jumping into action and helping to save not just his own life but the life of his grandfather and others on the road while they were traveling along a busy highway last week.
Hugh Cox told "Good Morning America" he was driving a Ford Expedition SUV and towing his boat along Interstate 75 near Resaca, Georgia, with his then-10-year-old grandson Drake in the passenger seat on July 15 when he fell unconscious and went into what his daughter Jessica Linn described as a "diabetic coma."
"The last thing I remember, I drifted over and we was in the right lane. I drifted over [from] the center lane [and there was a] truck blowing at me," Cox, who has Type 1 diabetes, recalled.
Linn said her son Drake managed to call her from the SUV and when he described what was going on, she said she "immediately knew" what had likely happened to her dad -- that his blood sugar levels had dropped too low.
"His eyes were open but he was basically paralyzed. And what my dad does is, he kind of just freezes. It's like a lockdown," Linn explained to "GMA," adding that her father's glucose monitoring transmitter had stopped working.
Amid the shocking phone call, Linn recounted guiding her son before she and first responders arrived.
"Drake and my dad was at a place where the phone call was starting to drop. So I said, 'Drake, you're gonna have to get on Papa's lap … and I want you to get the steering wheel, and I want you to slowly try to drive it to the shoulder,'" Linn said. "And I said, 'I want you to put your foot slowly on the brake and try to just get it off the interstate.'"
The mom of two said she still gets emotional when thinking back at the terrifying incident.
"That was a really tough position to be in, but at the same time, it was his only choice," she said. "I thought it might be the last time that I ever heard his voice, and there was nothing I could do."
Drake told "GMA" that even though he was "scared and worried" at the time about his beloved Papa, he did what his mom suggested and called 911 afterward.
"I got in his lap and I drove on the interstate for about a mile," the boy recalled. "I pulled over ... on the exit where I knew I was so I could tell the police officer where I was."
Gordon County Sheriff Mitch Ralston said when he heard about the incident the following morning, he knew Drake's actions were heroic.
"I felt he needed some type of recognition for saving him and his grandfather and possibly saving lives of people traveling on the interstate," the longtime sheriff told "GMA."
Ralston and the sheriff's office staff and first responders came together to honor young Drake in a ceremony held July 17, the same day as Drake's 11th birthday.
"He actually crawled over in his grandfather's lap and drove the vehicle and brought it to a safe stop on the emergency line of the interstate, and that's what's extraordinary," Ralston said. "They were pulling a boat, and the interstate out here is just congested. It's a lot of traffic, and for him to do that as a 10-year-old was just extraordinary."
Cox said he is now doing well after first responders administered glucose to him and he was able to secure a new transmitter from a local pharmacy.
Both Drake's parents and his grandfather said they couldn't be more proud of the 11-year-old.
"I'm real proud of him. He's a good boy," Cox said.
"He was really humble but I think [the recognition] made his heart swell," Linn added. "It was his birthday too, so it was a good day."
As for Drake, the preteen shared his advice for anyone who finds themselves in a challenging spot.
"Whenever you get in that situation, pray to God and be calm and do your best to make it work out," he said.
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