1/27/14 - A 10-year-old Howell boy is being hailed as a hero after his persistence led to the discovery of an elderly neighbor who nearly froze to death over the weekend. The 80-year-old woman, who is a resident of the Nelsonâs Ridge condominium complex near downtown Howell, fell in her garage Saturday and was unable to get up. A neighbor, 10-year-old Danny DiPietro, drove by the home with his father and thought he saw a dog in the garage. With the sub-zero temperatures, he felt something might be wrong, and finally convinced his mother to check into it. Dawn DiPietro says she began walking their dog toward the home and quickly realized it was a person lying on the ground. She ran home, called 911 and had her husband and son return to cover the woman in blankets and get her back into her house to warm up until an ambulance arrived. She tells WHMI that she's so proud her son didn't give up on his feeling that something just wasn't right. The victimâs daughter, Sandy Mitter, says Danny is a true hero and sheâs so glad he had the maturity to follow-up on his hunch that something was wrong. "If he didn't, she could have froze to death. I can't even imagine. We are so, so lucky." Mitter says her mother is recovering at St. Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital after being treated for hypothermia and dehydration. But she knows it could have been so much worse without Dannyâs instinct to make sure everything was okay. (JK)
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