The Hassig family in Mountain Brook, Alabama narrowly avoided a tragedy when husband and father Brad Hassig nearly drowned in their pool. Brad, a chiropractor, enjoys using the pool as a peaceful place to pray and meditate.
Earlier this year, while his wife was at work, Brad was in the pool with his twin sons Bridon and Christian (10) and neighbor boy Sam (11). As the boys played, Brad sat underwater in the shallow end of the pool and began to do some calming breathing exercises and praying. “I was saying the Lord’s Prayer. And I just, I don’t ever remember finishing it.”
He blacked out and the boys noticed something was wrong. Christian was the first to realize something was amiss, and he put on goggles to swim to his dad. When he reached Brad, he was blue and on his side at the bottom of the pool.
Despite being much smaller than their dad, Bridon and Christian managed to pull Brad out of the water and to the pool steps. Despite being much smaller than their father, Bridon and Christian managed to pull their dad out of the water and onto the steps of the pool. Bridon recalls feeling as though someone else was helping them, saying “There is no way we should have been able to do that. I just had a moment where Jesus was standing right behind us the whole time.” Brad also recognized the divine intervention in the situation.
“They weigh, what 80, 80-some pounds around there, and I weigh 185 pounds,” he said. “So they shouldn’t have been able to physically do what they did. I mean everything just went as perfectly as it probably had to have.”
Bridon tried to give his dad mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pounded on his chest while Christian and Sam tried to unlock Brad’s phone to call for help. When they couldn’t, they ran to find someone to call 911.
Their neighbor, who just so happened to be a cardiologist, came to Brad’s aid until the ambulance arrived. Brad was taken to the hospital and spent time in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit but was eventually able to return home to his family.
The Hassig family is now planning a community CPR workshop to help others improve their life-saving skills. Brad has decided to stop doing underwater meditations and advises others to never swim alone.
