MARGATE, Fla. — Six members of the Castelo family had celebrated a 4-month-old baby boy’s baptism, and they were out for a walk when they heard a woman’s cries for help on Sunday in Margate.

Jessica Castelo was with her 2-year-old daughter when she saw her husband, Alexander Castelo, running, heard water splashes, and when she saw him in a lake at the Villas on The Green community feared that he was dealing with an alligator.

Alexander Castelo, 35, said he followed the sound of the woman’s voice, saw a little boy floating face down, dropped his cell phone, and jumped into the lake. His 31-year-old brother Jonathan helped to pull the boy out of the water.

“I didn’t think about it ... I started chest compressions,” said Alexander Castelo, who first learned how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a dummy as a Boy Scout at 12 to 13 years old.

Castelo, who was born in Ecuador and owns Sahara Tree Service, said he continued performing CPR even though the boy appeared to be unconscious and not breathing.

“A lot of vomit, a lot of fluid started coming out of his mouth, but he was completely unresponsive,” Alexander Castelo said, adding that he felt hopeless until he noticed the boy started breathing again.

It was a Castelo family team effort: The brothers’ sister, Amy, called 911; their wives, Jessica and Theresa, helped to answer the emergency dispatcher’s questions. Their brother Christian Castelo, 38, who had traveled from Texas for his nephew’s baptism, watched his 2-year-old niece.

“I think the woman didn’t speak English, I think she spoke Haitian Creole,” Alexander Castelo said. “She stood next to me the whole time.”

Jessica Castelo walked to Holiday Springs Boulevard to help guide Margate police officers and Margate Fire Rescue personnel to where her husband, the boy, and the woman who cried for help were.

“I felt some relief when I heard him cry with fire rescue ... It didn’t all hit me until after I took a shower ... There were two police officers. The woman police officer thanked me, and someone from fire rescue said I was a hero,” Alexander Castelo said.

Margate Fire Rescue personnel reported the incident as a near-drowning and took the boy to the Coral Springs Medical Center.

The Castelo siblings, who are regulars at the New Springs Church in Coral Springs, believe God had them there at the right place at the right time.

“The way we were raised just as a religious family,” Jonathan Castelo, a teacher at Parkridge Christian Academy, said about why they didn’t hesitate to rush to the rescue.

Alexander Castelo said he is worried about how the boy is doing, and thought about how they almost walked in another direction and could have left earlier for that walk after celebrating the baptism.

“I believe that God allowed us to be there to help this kid and that gives me an outlook that there is something out there guiding us,” Alexander Castelo said. “I believe it.”

Jessica Castelo said the experience motivated the family to learn CPR, and they are planning to take a class in case they see someone in trouble again.

“We really hope he makes it and he is well,” Alexander Castelo said about the boy.

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Siblings out for a walk rescue 6-year-old boy from drowning in Margate

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