A brave Oklahoma grandpa gave his life to save his 3-year-old granddaughter from the family’s exploded home, according to a new report.
Don Osteen, an Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was a hero on the homefront Thursday, when the explosion broke out as he ate lunch with his granddaughter, Paetyn, local outlet KFOR reported.
He was lighting a candle next to the stove at the time, according to the report.
Despite Osteen’s own extensive injuries — a collapsed lung, broken ribs and severe burns — he scooped Paetyn up in his arms and carried the tot along the steep driveway to safety, his son, Brendon Osteen, told the station.
“He just got out of the house and headed straight to where he knew help was,” Brendon said. “He tried to get in his truck and his keys were melted to him. His phone was exploded in his pocket.”
“[I] just thought about the steep grade of that driveway and just knew and kind of came to the conclusion that they were carried up that driveway, you know,” he added. “It wasn’t him, it wasn’t her. Something carried them up that driveway.”
Don’s wife, Paetyn’s grandmother, was the first to make it to the scene — and discovered the pair in the front pasture of the property, Brendon added.
Don had even laid the little girl in the shade.
“He was a man set in his faith and he knew where he was going,” Brendon said. “And once he knew he did his job, he knew to relax and go home, you know.”
Don died in the ICU on Monday, according to a post by his daughter-in-law, Jamie Moore, on a Facebook page set up to support the family.
“He was so brave and his sacrifice of love to save his grandbaby will always be a part of his heroic legacy that he leaves behind,” Moore wrote. “He was not only a great husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, brother, friend and veteran, but he will forever be our hero and Paetyns guardian angel.”
Paetyn remained in the pediatric ICU Tuesday, Moore wrote, adding that “the doctors are very pleased with her progress but she still has a long way to go.”
“If she’s anything like her papa who has been good to her so far then she’ll be tough,” Brendon told the station. “That’s what he was first and foremost. I mean, he was all about that baby and she was all about him.”