Editor:

I have never written a letter to an editor, but I feel this story needs to be told.

My family is from Dallas, and we were visiting South Padre Island this past President’s Day weekend. Our family consisted of myself, my wife, our daughter and her son (our grandson), who is 2 years old.

Our grandson suffers from a Restricted Airway Disorder (asthma) and he was coughing a lot over the weekend, so we decided to leave South Padre Island on Sunday evening, Feb. 14, at about 5 p.m. This way he could sleep in the car during our 10-hour drive back to Dallas.

About 2 hours into our drive, he began coughing continually for about 30 minutes and could not catch his breath. He began vomiting and gasping for air. We were frantic and didn’t know what to do.

We stopped in the McDonalds parking lot on Highway 77 in Kingsville and called 911. Within moments, the police and fire department ambulance arrived. They immediately attended to my grandson and over the next hour gave him oxygen and stabilized him. They made sure all of his vital signs were normal.

At the same time the police stayed with us, assuring us everything would be fine. All of your city emergency workers were extremely polite, professional and wonderful.

After my grandson was breathing normally, and we were all back in control of the situation, the fire department called a private ambulance and we had my grandson rushed to Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, which was 40 miles away.

We are now back in Dallas and our grandson in under the care of his pulmonary pediatrician and doing well.

Thank you to the wonderful police and fire department of the Kingsville.

Sincerely,
Robert Feinberg
Dallas