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Zoo Outing For 'Little Hero' Ends In Emergency Room

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By RAY REYES

rreyes@tampatrib.com

Published: February 2, 2009

A day after his 5-year-old son saved his life, Danny Stephen took him to Lowry Park Zoo for a celebratory outing.

The visit was cut short when Jude Stephen started feeling nauseated, so father and son went to the hospital.

"Now it's my turn to take care of him," Danny Stephen, 43, of St. Petersburg, said Sunday night.

Stephen said his son may have had a delayed case of nerves because of what happened the day before. He was checked and they went home.

On Saturday, as his diabetic father flitted in and out of consciousness because of dangerously low blood-sugar levels, Jude displayed uncommon resolve for a kindergartner.

Stephen had been unconscious since 10 a.m. Saturday in their home at 12th Avenue South. By dinnertime, Jude was trying to wake him because he was hungry, Stephens said.

"I literally just passed out," Stephen said. "I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. What came out was mumbo jumbo."

Stephen said he mumbled the word "juice," and his son thought he was saying "Jude." Once the Bear Creek Elementary School student realized what was happening, he began to pour honey and juice into his father's mouth. Jude then hand-fed his father cupcakes.

"He knows my expressions when my sugar's low," said Stephen, who was diagnosed with diabetes on Easter 26 years ago. "He saved my life. All I remember is sort of coming out of it."

Paramedics say that without Jude's quick thinking, his father might have died.

Stephen said he lost his wife, Michelle, in September after she had a stroke in August. Shortly after, Stephen was laid off from his construction job. Struggling to make ends meet, Stephen said, he can barely afford the test strips used to check blood-sugar levels.

"It's been one hurdle after another," Stephen said. "This little kid has been through so much. He's just a good, good little boy. He's a little hero."

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920.

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