April Coffey
Last week, nine-year-old Malachi Coffey was playing outside at his aunt's house in Sumter County, South Carolina, when he suddenly heard someone desperately crying for help. That someone was his aunt's neighbor, 65-year-old Allen Clemmons, and he was trapped underneath a Mustang convertible.
“I couldn’t hardly breathe,” Clemmons told The Herald. “I could holler, but nobody was coming to my rescue. I done give up.”
Clemmons was pinned down for over an hour and a half, gasping for air while the Mustang sat on his chest and legs. He told reporters that he prayed to God, asking for the strength to get one last shout for help out before it was too late.
Thankfully, that's when young Coffey arrived and realized what was going on. The boy then jumped into action: He found a car jack, slid it under the vehicle, and used it to lift the heavy weight of the giant hunk of steel from Clemmons, who was holding on to his very last few breaths.
“If it hadn’t been for Malachi, I wouldn’t be here today, because I couldn’t have made it another 30 minutes,” Clemmons said.
After freeing Clemmons from the weight of the car, Coffey ran back to his aunt's house to get help. Clemmons was then airlifted to a hospital in Columbia, South Carolina.
To reward young Coffey for his heroic deed, the Sumter County Sheriff's Ofice gifted him with a plaque, a badge to honor him as a junior deputy, a sheriff's office quilt for his mother, an official sheriff's office coin, a certificate designating him as the employee of the month for April, and a $25 gift card to Walmart.
(Photo Credit: Sumter County Sheriff's Office)
"Malachi has always been an angel to my family and I am blessed to see him sharing that calling with others," Malachi's mom, April Coffey, told Woman's World. "I am extremely proud of him and what he did and am very blessed to be his mom."
Although Clemmons still suffered after the incident — with six fractured ribs, two pelvis fractures, and a shoulder injury — he said he's forever grateful for Coffey's help. And Coffey's kindness didn't stop there: While Clemmons was in the hospital, Coffey visited him, and the pair built a friendship so strong that Clemmons now refers to the boy as his "angel."
How sweet!
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