A Georgia dad who was paralyzed after saving a drowning girl passed away on Friday.

While hanging out at a lake in Rockmart, Ga., with his son on June 8, Mike Patterson noticed a 4-year-old struggling to stay afloat and dove in to help. The heroic dad's spinal cord was severed in the process and he died on Friday, with his family by his side, after suffering from a number of medical complications, according to a statement released by his family.

“His life and the lives of others are forever changed by his courageous, split-second decision to save another’s life,” Patterson’s family wrote in a statement...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28...26pLid%3D338100