Former NFL running back Peyton Hillis has said it was “100% a miracle” everyone survived when he saved his son and niece from drowning but ended up hospitalized himself.
Hillis opened up about the near-death experience in an interview with fellow former NFL player Michael Strahan on the talkshow Good Morning America.
Hillis was on a family vacation in Pensacola, Florida, on 4 January when his nine-year-old son and eight-year-old niece were sucked into a powerful rip current. He heard his mother start screaming and leaped into the water to rescue the children after not seeing any lifeguards.
“I didn’t even think,” Hillis said. “I just reacted and started running toward the water.”
Hillis recalled having to make the difficult choice of who to save first.
“I think the scariest point to me was when I’m swimming toward my son, but I had to pass by him because my niece is in more danger,” Hillis said.
When he saw his niece safely being returned to shore on a boogie board with Hillis’s sister, he went back for his son.
“By the time I got to him, he was pretty much limp,” Hillis said. “He didn’t have any more strength in him to swim.”
After Hillis managed to get his son back to shore, he fainted. Emergency medical technicians performed rescue methods on Hillis and his sister side by side.
Hillis was suffering from kidney and lung failure from the ordeal, which led to a two-week hospital stay in intensive care.
He was sedated for 10 days and placed on a machine to help him breathe. Hillis told Strahan he remembered the strange experience of being able to hear conversations around him while he was unconscious.
Hillis said a valuable lesson he learned that day was that “you’ve got to respect the water”.
“You’ve got to always be aware of your surroundings,” Hillis added.
He warned others to never let their children swim in the ocean alone and to make sure they wear lifejackets.
The National Weather Service explains that if ever caught in a rip current, it’s crucial to swim parallel to the shore until out of it.
“If you can float, you might even just relax and ‘go with the flow’,” the agency said. “Rip currents do not usually go out very far.”
Hillis is best known for his performance during the 2010 NFL season, which saw him rush for nearly 1,200 yards and 11 touchdowns. The Arkansas native also added 477 receiving yards and two touchdown catches to his production while landing on the cover of the Madden football video game that hit store shelves in August 2011.
He spent eight seasons in the NFL after turning pro in 2008.
