It was an emotional meeting between first responders and a grateful father. Three weeks ago, his daughter was given a second chance at life after being trapped underwater inside her vehicle.
The Mukilteo woman got to say thank you on Saturday to some of the first responders who saved her life on that day.
"It's life changing," said Rodrigo Arzate, "It's the best and the worst fears at the same time."
It is easy to see the gratitude Arzate is feeling for the first responders who used every resource they had to save his daughter.
"Everything can change in a minute, a second," he said.
And on Feb. 2, it nearly did.
"Kind of a confusing time for me," said his daughter, Mia. "Because I was just waking up and the nurses were telling me that I had a really close brush with death."
Just how close death came is evident in the photographs from the scene. The car that Mia, 22, was in when firefighters found her was upside-down in a ditch, underwater, on Ebey Island.
"We were able to figure out that she had an air pocket," said Lake Stevens firefighter Chris Harrott.
He is one of the department's first rescue swimmers. In photographs on the day of her accident, Harrott says he isn't visible because he's underwater helping Mia. The incident took 45 minutes until he was finally able to free her.
"And it wasn't just our crew," he insisted. "But many crews from Everett from Snohomish from Marysville were all there. They were all working together. It was really a team effort."
Her father, an aerospace engineer at Boeing, got to see the tools they used to cut his daughter out of her car, thankful for what they were able to achieve.
"And just realize that one day it can just all disappear," Rodrigo said.
But not yet because some dedicated strangers would not give up until his precious daughter was free.
"Just thank you so much for my life," said Mia, when asked what she said to the firefighters. "I didn't think I had it but, thanks to them."
"It's impressive," she said, smiling, as her father held her.
Mia is a student at Everett Community College. She hopes to transfer to the University of Washington to study marketing, making the most, she says, of this second chance.
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