10-Year-Old Twins Save Their Dad From Drowning Using CPR They Saw in Movies

Movies like The Sandlot and Hook are fun to watch, but we don’t normally think of them as educational videos that can save a person’s life. But for 46-year-old dad, Brad Hassig, these movies are one reason he’s still alive today after he became unconscious last month in his backyard pool. At the time, his sons and their friend were nearby, and when the boys noticed something was wrong, these 10-year-old twins saved their dad from drowning, along with the help of their neighborhood friend. These brave boys used CPR techniques they’d seen on some of their favorite movies.

The Story of How the Twins Saved Their Dad

The Mountain Brook, Alabama family was spending time in their backyard pool like many other days. As Brad Hassig, a chiropractor by day, was doing breathing exercises in the pool, his 10-year-old sons, Bridon and Christian, played nearby with their friend, Sam Ebert, 11. Hassig’s wife and the boys’ mother was at work at the time. The breathing exercises were something Hassig had done many times before.

As he described it, even though he was going underwater as part of the exercise, “I wasn’t pushing myself or trying to be a Navy Seal.”

But something went awry this time. “I went from just complete peace, saying the Lord’s Prayer,” Hassig explained, “and then everything was just white.”

Shortly after Hassig lost consciousness, Christian noticed that something didn’t seem right with his dad; so he put on some goggles and swam underwater to get a closer look.

Christian explained, “He was laying on his side, and his face was starting to turn blue.”

Christian alerted his brother, Bridon, and his friend, Sam, and that’s when the action all started where the twins saved their dad with the help of their friend.

Bridon and Sam grabbed 185-pound Hassig by the arm and pulled him over to the steps inside the pool.

Hassig believes that the boys’ ability to even pull him out of the water was a miracle.

“There’s no way, physically, they should have been able to pull a 185-pound man out of out of the water like that, ” said Hassig. “And to know and do what all of them did, perfectly as quickly…No lack of action, to run as fast as they did. It’s God’s hands all over it.”

Bridon also noted, “Luckily we are strong swimmers.”

Once out of the water, Bridon began to do what he’d seen on The Sandlot and Hook. The boys recalled what one of the characters had been saying in on The Sandlot where a boy pretends to be unconscious under water. In an interview with Today Parents, the boys quoted the movie, “Smalls, come on!” as they explained that they knew that CPR might help from the movie.

According to the twins, the neighbor, Sam was yelling, “Do CPR!” and so Bridon started to pump on his dad’s chest and do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Watch the boys talk about the moment here:

But that’s not all on how the twins saved their dad. Meanwhile, as Bridon and Sam performed CPR, since the boys didn’t have a phone to call 911, Christian sprinted through the neighborhood to find help. He knocked on a door, but no one answered. That’s when he flagged down a car and said to the driver, “My dad can’t breathe. Help him.”

The driver called 911, and first responders came quickly. A neighbor, who is a cardiologist also came over to help.

When asked how he felt about the event, Bridon said, “I was like, I’ve had some moments with him, with happy, sad and some mad moments, but I’m like, ‘I don’t want this to be the last moment.”

Eventually, Hassig came to, coughing up blood and foam.

Hassig said as he was coming to, he heard his son saying, “Daddy, Daddy. Come back, Daddy. You have to be okay.”

And there is still uncertainty about what happened. Hassig shared, “I went from peace to being slammed on the deck of the pool, and then just chaos everyone was everywhere.”

Paramedics took Hassig to the hospital, where he stayed for 24 hours.

Click “next page” to find out how Hassig is doing now.