An Austin man is recovering in his home after suffering a heart attack on Lake Belton.
His rescuers were none other than the Boy Scouts he helped train.
It takes a lot to be a Boy Scout; you learn a little bit of everything.
The boys of Troop 410 have racked up dozens of merit badges between them – but there’s one thing no merit badge teaches you.
During a recent sailing trip, this troop’s leader, Tex Mitchell Sr., suddenly fell sick.
“Mr. Mitchell looked really bad and at that point he was almost unconscious,” scout Alex Graves said. “He was still conscious but he was barely hanging on.”
Their emergency skills were put to use.
“I don’t think we ever really - certainly don’t expect them to use it on us,” said the elder Mitchell.
Instead of panicking, the boys quickly leapt into action and took over the boat.
Among four scouts, one assumed the leadership role while another pair rendered first aid.
“He told me to take over the helm, which is how you steer the boat,” Graves said. “They were both cooling him down, pouring water on him, fanning him with life jackets.”
Through a fortunate chain of events, Mitchell Sr. made it to Scott and White Hospital in Temple where doctors told him he was in the middle of a heart attack.
“I was recovering remarkably and this was largely due to the fact that they were able to get me off the lake and into the hospital,” said Mitchell Sr.
So, yeah, go ahead and call them kids. But just keep this in mind:
"It could've been an adult on that boat that could've done it, but we are just kids really,” said Graves. So it shows that just because we're kids we can't do something an adult can do."
And that’s a merit worth more than a badge.