Story - The Meade County Messenger


Vol. 119. No.15	APRIL 14 , 2010

Eight-year-old saves brother from hanging

“It was our Easter miracle,” described grateful mother Sheila Foster. “We are blessed, very blessed.”
After returning home from Easter Sunday services, her two sons were in the backyard on their large playground. Austin, 3 years old, used a rope meant to help climb a rock wall to instead climb up a slide.

With the rope wrapped around his neck, he then lost his footing and the rope tightened – instantly choking him.

Quick-thinking brother Cody, 8, immediately pushed his brother up on the slide and held him in that position to give the rope slack until his parents could help.

“I wanted him to have oxygen,” said Cody.

Foster sensed something was wrong and went to check on the boys, where she discovered the desperate scene.

“Cody was red-faced and crying. He was out of breath and sweating from the effort of holding his brother up,” Foster said. “He also thought he had done something wrong...that he made the wrong decision and should of came and got us instead.”

Foster, without a doubt, said her son made the right decision – and had he left the scene to get an adult, Austin would surely have died in the meantime. Foster is ill, and her husband, Troy, works a 3 p.m. - 3 a.m. shift.

“He absolutely did everything right,” she added.
Grandmother Peggy Farris agreed. “We’re absolutely positive we would have lost Austin that day if it weren’t for Cody,” she added.

The family closely observed Austin for symptoms, but he ultimately required no medical treatment. The rope left a burn-type mark on the back of his small neck.

Cody, a 2nd-grader at Brandenburg Primary School, was honored April 5 at a Lincoln Heritage Pack 150 Boy Scout meeting for his heroism.

“We are honoring Cody for being a hometown hero,” said pack leader Patty Beckham, who presented him with a certificate. She has recommended Cody for a more official Boy Scout award at a later date.

“The lesson of this story is.......?” she asked the Boy Scouts. “Never, ever, put a rope around your neck.”

Also presenting Cody with awards were Fire Chief Larry Naser, Sheriff William “Butch” Kerrick, and Brandenburg United Methodist Church Pastor Jim Robinson.

“God truly did watch over one little boy, and gave the other the strength to save him,” concluded Foster.

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