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Not your average family vacation: 3 men help save boy buried in sand

Posted at 10:32 AM, Jul 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-07 12:34:59-04

PHOENIX, Ariz. – It was far from your average family vacation: three men from Arizona helped find and rescue a stranger’s 2-year-old son who got buried in the sand on a California beach.

Jesse Martin of Queen Creek was sitting by a lifeguard stand Saturday in Newport Beach, Calif. when he heard a woman screaming about her missing son.

Martin got several family members to go look for the boy, including his twin uncles, Steven and Stuart Frost of Mesa.

They immediately zeroed in on the boy’s last known location — a large hole that seemed to have partially collapsed.

“When I got in there and dug a couple handfuls, I ended up feeling him and finding him. So I dug him up and picked him up outside the hole,” said Martin.

“His face was real pale, real blue, real lifeless. It was definitely a sick feeling,” Martin added.

Martin estimates the little boy, named Brooks, was buried under two feet of sand for several minutes. The Frosts, both dentists, immediately started CPR.

“We were cleaning out the sand out of his mouth, just making sure nothing would go down his lungs,” said Stuart Frost. “When Brooks finally said the word, ‘Mom,’ that’s when I knew we were OK. And it was pure relief.”

On Monday, Brooks’ mom brought the little boy back to where the Valley family was staying to share a few hugs and laughs.

“I’m happy that it turned for the best,” said Martin. “I think if we would have waited any longer, it could have turned bad.”

The Frosts credit an Arizona regulation that requires all dentists to get CPR certified.

“For 22 years, I’ve taken CPR certification classes and practiced this type of life-saving skill but I’ve never, ever had to use those skills,” said Steven Frost. “It was interesting to see that after many years of practicing, those skills were natural.”

“The results were absolutely amazing,” he added.