MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - The father of a South Florida teen who drowned after saving a mother and son in Virginia Key has arrived in South Florida from Central America to bid a final farewell.
Misel Burgos Zamora was greeted with hugs and kisses from loved ones after landing at Miami International Airport from Nicaragua, Friday afternoon.
The grieving parent was granted a temporary stay on a humanitarian visa, with help from the Office of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, so he could say goodbye to his late son, Christian Burgos.
Burgos Zamora was not able to attend his son’s funeral in October, but now he can be here to pay his respects.
“I thought I was going to have to stay and not get to see my son, but thank God we were able to sort out the visa,” said Burgos Zamora as he spoke through a translator. “Tomorrow we’ll go all around, because it’s too dark right now, and it’s raining. Tomorrow we’ll go to the park, we’ll go where he died, and to Jackson [Memorial Hospital]. I want to make a lot of rounds, because my son died a hero, you know? Saving people, and we all love him.”
Burgos lost his life back in September after he came to the rescue of a 25-year-old mother and her 9-year-old young son, who were struggling in the water near Virginia Key Beach Park, Sept. 30.
Paramedics transported the three of them to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where Burgos died two days later. He was 17 years old.
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