VIDEO โ DONโT DROP HOPE โย
March 9, 2023 – In 2018, Hines told his story to ABC News, recalling the feeling he had the moment that he jumped. โInstant regret, powerful, overwhelming,โ he remembers feeling. โAs I fell, all I wanted to do was reach back to the rail, but it was gone. The thoughts in those four seconds, it was โWhat have I just done? I donโt want to die.โโ
Luckily for Hines, he turned around in mid-air and hit the water in a seated position. While he shattered three vertebrae in the fall, he was still alive. While he soon surfaced, itโs no surprise that given his injuries, it was hard to stay afloat. Thatโs when something incredible happened.
โSomething began circling beneath me, and I mean something very large, very slimy, and very alive,โ Hines recalls. โAnd Iโm freaking out, and Iโm thinking โYouโve got to be kidding me, I didnโt die jumping off that stupid bridge, and a shark is going to eat me?.โ I realized Iโm not trying to stay afloat. Iโm now lying on my back, being kept buoyant by this thing.โ
Whatever it was, it kept Hines afloat until he was rescued by the Coast Guard. It was only later when he received a letter from someone who had witnessed the entire event from the bridge, that he discovered what had come to his rescue.
