When, less than a month ago, Brad Hassig was in his home’s pool along with his twin sons and their friend, he had no idea that he was going to remember that day forever.
On that day in mid-June, his 10-year-old sons, Bridon and Christian, would turn from his boys to his heroes since they saved his life.
Hassig was doing some breathing exercises in the pool, when he suddenly lost consciousness.
“I like to do breathing exercises,” Brad told WBRC. “It’s peaceful and relaxing. I love being under water; something I do all the time. I say the Lord’s Prayer when I do this. It’s kind of a meditation… I don’t remember finishing it.”
As the boys said later on, they saw their father shaking and then falling on the side, which alerted them about something being wrong with him.
“He usually sits kind of like he’s meditating,” said Christian. “I could see he was shaking a bunch and then he just laid on his side. Since I had goggles on, I could see his face was turning very light blue. I told Bridon, ‘Dad’s not okay.’”
The brothers and their friend, Sam Ebert, knew that they had to take action immediately if they wanted to save the drowning man.
“Me and Sam dove into the water and I got one shoulder and he got the other,” said Bridon. “We just dragged him to the steps.”
Once they had taken the man out of the water, they checked if he was responsive, but he wasn’t.
CPR was the only way to go, but they had had no CPR training before so they really had to play it by ear and hope it would work.
“I first gave him CPR a little and then I started giving him mouth to mouth and then he started throwing up foam and salt water and blood,” said Bridon.
At the same time, Christian ran to ask for help. Soon after the man regained consciousness, an ambulance came and took him to the hospital.
“It was like I just got slammed on my side,” said Brad. “When I kind of came to — I’m coughing up blood and water, struggling to breathe, and there’s people everywhere. My one son was yelling, ‘Daddy, daddy, come back!’”
Brad Hassig was rushed to Grandview Medical Center’s emergency room and stayed in the ICU overnight so that doctors could make sure his life was not in danger.
24 hours later, he was released from the hospital and he returned home, where his sons hugged him tight, happy that he was still there with them.
“I probably hugged him two straight minutes like I just didn’t want to let go,” said Bridon.
As Brad said, he is super proud of his sons and he will be forever grateful to them.
The family is soon planning to take CPR classes to make sure all of them will know how to react in case of an emergency.
Watch Hassig and his sons tell their story in the video below.
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