A group of Seminole County firefighters in Florida saved a 3-year-old girl after she was run over by a truck, and three years later they share a beautiful bond.
A Race To Save Lila
Lila Pagan was just 3 years old when a truck accidentally ran her over. It is the kind of moment every parent fears, and it is hard to even imagine. Seminole County Fire Station 22 was just around the corner, and Lt. Marcus Gombs was among the first firefighters to arrive. He found a chaotic scene with a mother holding her little girl.
“The first thing I saw is I like saw my little girl,” Gombs said. “And as I saw that, I’m like, OK, we have to try to do everything that we can possibly do.” In that moment, this was not just another call for him. He saw his own child in that little girl, and we can only guess how heavy that must have felt.
Lila’s older brother, Francisco, was 8 at the time. “I just remember coming out and seeing them try pulling my sister from under the car. It’s just screaming,” he said. No child should carry a memory like that, and it breaks our hearts to picture him standing there.
Her mother, Pamela Pagan, fought hard to get into the ambulance with her daughter. Gombs had to gently pull her away so the crew could work. Then he did something that went far beyond his job. “Lieutenant Marcus Gombs stopped and prayed with me … He prayed for me and with me and for Lila … and I got to the hospital where they came out and told me that she was stable,” Pamela said.
A Brother’s Faith
Firefighter-paramedic Cross Ferrentino and the crew rushed Lila to the hospital. She was critically injured, intubated and placed in a coma. Her family faced every parent’s worst fear.
Yet in the middle of that fear, an 8-year-old boy held on to God. “I knew that Father God was with my sister, so I had to tell her that,” Francisco said.
At the hospital, he became known as the boy who sang worship songs through the halls. “I guess I just felt like praising the Lord,” he said. His simple faith is humbling, and it is the kind that many of us grown-ups still long for.
About a month later, Lila went home. Today she is 6, running, playing and keeping her family on their toes with her feisty personality. Looking at her now, you would never guess what she survived.
Firefighters Who Became Family
The crew’s connection with Lila did not end at the hospital. The firefighters have celebrated birthdays and Christmases with the family, bringing her gifts and calling her “baby girl.” Ferrentino still gets emotional when he talks about the day she walked back into the station.
“When she walked in here, I couldn’t help but feel like just emotion come over me and look down and just start dripping tears,” he said.
Pamela says the bond means more than she can express. “It’s hard to put into words, as a mom, the gratitude that we feel for what they did for us that day and how they continue to be in our lives,” she said.
Station 22 has now received a FOX 35 Care Force Award for its lifesaving response and its continued care for Lila and her family.
When we read this story, the first thing that comes to mind is how God used people of different ages and different backgrounds to bring hope and healing to a hurting family before He ever gave them a miracle. Have you ever heard of a firefighter stopping in the middle of an emergency call to pray with a frightened mother? That’s not just training. That’s God at work!
And what totally stunned me was how an 8-year-old boy could grasp the weight of such a critical moment and lean completely on God. We have so much to learn from that precious child. While his little sister lay in a coma, he walked those hospital hallways singing worship songs. Can we have that same kind of faith when the doctors have no answers and our hearts are breaking? Can we lift our voices before we see the breakthrough?
I praise God for saving that little girl’s life! This family was broken and scared, but God didn’t just answer their prayers. He surrounded them with loving people who still show up for their daughter today. That’s our God. He heals, He restores, and He sends His people right when we need them most. So let’s keep praying for Lila, her family and the faithful crew of Station 22.
“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1 (NKJV)
WATCH: Firefighters Share an Unbreakable Bond With the Little Girl They Saved After a Terrifying Accident
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