Brian Drury shares a heartwarming tale about the day his father thanked him for simply caring.
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00:00 This was the first time I'd seen my dad cry in my life.
00:03 It was May of 2010,
00:07 working my summer job as a lifeguard,
00:08 living at home with my parents.
00:11 And this day happened to be just one of those days
00:14 where it seemed like everything was going wrong.
00:16 One thing after another, piling up,
00:19 the stress just building.
00:20 And I knew the second I walked in the door,
00:23 'cause I was driving home,
00:25 it was all just gonna evaporate.
00:27 I'd come in, I'd say, "Hey mom," I'd give her a hug.
00:30 Dad'd be in the living room in his chair.
00:32 "Hey Bri, how was your day?"
00:33 Go give him a hug.
00:35 And when dinnertime rolled around,
00:36 we'd get up, we'd fill our plates with food,
00:39 we'd go into the living room
00:40 and do one of our favorite things together,
00:42 which was watch a movie.
00:43 The stress is evaporating
00:45 and I'm in one of my happy places.
00:47 And at one point, my dad went up to check on my grandfather
00:52 who was taking a shower.
00:53 He'd been living with us for about 10 years at that point.
00:56 He was 83 now, so he needed a little more help
00:58 getting around.
00:59 So about a minute after dad got up,
01:02 we're sitting there, peace, silence, and serenity.
01:06 And all of that shattered in an instant.
01:10 Before I knew it, I grabbed the cordless phone
01:19 and I was running up the stairs.
01:20 I turned into the bathroom and when I got in,
01:23 I saw he had pulled his father's naked,
01:28 still dripping wet body into his lap and was holding him.
01:33 My grandfather's arms were draped back,
01:35 his head was back, his mouth was open.
01:38 And when all the emotions were rising,
01:41 it was like my mind split down the middle.
01:44 There were only two choices I had at that time.
01:47 And I knew no matter which of those two I chose,
01:51 my life was gonna change forever.
01:53 I knew that in that moment I had a choice
01:55 between action and inaction.
01:58 Have you ever been at a time in your life
02:01 where it was so crystal clear that you had two choices?
02:08 For you, it might not have been
02:10 a life-threatening emergency.
02:12 For you, it might have been that moment
02:14 when you finally said, "I'm done and I'm walking out."
02:17 You said, "I'm leaving this job.
02:19 "I'm not staying in this unhealthy relationship."
02:21 When you finally decided to say, "I love you
02:23 "and I'm ready for this."
02:24 When you finally decided to look in the mirror for yourself
02:27 and say, "Today is the day and we're doing it."
02:29 That day, I decided to take action.
02:34 So I said, "Dad, we need to get him flat.
02:36 "Mom, here's the phone, call 911.
02:38 "Tell them where we are, tell them what happened."
02:40 We lift my grandfather's still dripping wet body,
02:43 naked, out and lay him flat on the ground.
02:46 I know I need to check his vitals, so I come down.
02:48 I put my head by his mouth to listen and feel for breathing.
02:51 I'm looking down the plane of his chest
02:53 to see if his chest is rising and falling
02:55 and rising and falling.
02:57 And then I take my two fingers to his carotid artery
02:59 to feel for a heartbeat.
03:01 And as I'm doing my vital check, I'm down there.
03:04 There's no breath.
03:06 There's no movement in his chest.
03:09 But there was the slightest little heartbeat still pumping.
03:13 So I got down and start giving rescue breaths.
03:16 I'm down there, my body is shaking.
03:18 It feels like I can't keep going,
03:20 but I know this is all I can do until someone else,
03:22 an EMT, a doctor gets here.
03:24 I have to keep going, but my arms are shaking,
03:25 my legs are shaking.
03:26 I'm gonna keep doing it the best I can until I collapse.
03:30 And then finally, after what felt like 30 or 40 minutes,
03:33 I was tapped on the shoulder and the EMT is there.
03:36 I tried to save a man's life that day.
03:41 But as the head EMT came downstairs and explained
03:44 that he had had a massive heart attack,
03:47 he had likely died instantaneously,
03:51 and that the heartbeats that I'd felt
03:55 were nothing more than an echo or an aftershock.
03:58 It felt like I failed.
04:01 I hadn't saved anybody.
04:04 Until later that night, when my dad looked at me
04:08 and he said, "Brian, if you hadn't been there,
04:13 "I wouldn't have known what to do."
04:15 And for the rest of my life, I would have doubted
04:18 that if I'd only known what to do,
04:20 that my dad would still be alive today.
04:22 Because you were here and you acted and you didn't hesitate,
04:27 I know it was his time, and I can let him go in peace.
04:32 Sometimes you'll save exactly who you intend to.
04:38 Sometimes someone you didn't even see
04:40 or didn't expect will benefit from your efforts.
04:44 And sometimes the person you save will be yourself.
04:48 And I learned one of the most important lessons
04:51 I've ever learned.
04:52 You never know whose life you might save
04:57 by choosing to act.
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