Hurricane mother and special needs son hailed heroes following pool rescue

HURRICANE, Washington County — A mother and her 14-year-old son are being hailed as heroes after saving a man from drowning at their community pool in September.

What makes what happened more remarkable is that the son has autism and apraxia of speech, which makes it very difficult for him to speak.

The incident happened on September 26, and Heather Hall and her son Jaymon Hall had gone to their HOA clubhouse at the Quail Lake Estates to spend some time in the workout room. Hall said having her son with her that day was critical, adding that the day itself started out as a very difficult one.

"It was just me and Jaymon at home, and it was my mom's birthday," Hall recalled. "My mom had passed away three months before this, and so I was just kind of feeling a little down and I thought maybe a workout might help lift my mood."

While there, Hall said she noticed something unusual through a window facing the pool area.

"I could see somebody's stuff, but I couldn't see anybody there," Hall said. "Then I got the weights out and got ready, and it was just one of those intuition things. I was like, 'I need to go check on the pool.'"

What Hall saw was a man in the hot tub who was completely unresponsive. As she went out to check on him, Jaymon followed.

"I started yelling, 'Sir! Sir!' and he was completely unresponsive, and I'm glad that Jaymon followed," Hall said, adding that she yelled at her son to call 911.

"I tried to pull the man out of the water, but he's a bigger guy — maybe 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5 — and I couldn't get him out of the water," she continued. "I was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, and I just held his head out of the water."

While Hall held the man's head above water, she said she saw and heard sirens coming their way. She motioned to Jaymon to open the gate for the officers so they could perform life-saving measures on the man.

"Officer Torres directed me to pull the man's arm, and I got his legs out of the water. The officer said that he thought he could hear a pulse, but he wasn't sure," Hall said. "The officer then asked Jaymon to go open the gate so the EMS could come in. So Jaymon went by himself, and when the fire truck came, he waved them in and showed them where we were."

Hall said it all went by so fast and, even though they did all they could, she wasn't sure the man was going to make it.

"They had us wait outside of the pool area, and we saw them load him into the ambulance. His skin was pretty gray, so I didn't have a lot of confidence," Hall said.

"The next day, an officer called me and said that (the man) was awake and seemed to be aware of his surroundings."

When asked how he felt during the experience, Jaymon, who can answer with simple responses, said "scary" and "good."

"It scared Jaymon a lot, and understandably so," Hall said. "When I told Jaymon the news that he was OK, it was like I could tell the weight lifted off of his shoulders, and he was really happy that the man was OK."

The Halls were able to reunite with the man whose life they saved at a recent Hurricane City Council meeting, where they were both awarded the Citizen Life Saver Award. Mayor Clark Fawcett was present at the meeting and said what the Halls did that day is a testament to the type of people who live in Hurricane.

"I'm just so proud to be associated with people like this who see a problem, step up and put themselves out there," the mayor said. "It's amazing what they went through to do that and to save this individual. It just makes you feel good to know there are still good people out there who will do these kinds of things. And it sounds like they needed both of them in order to be able to keep him alive."

Hall expressed how proud she is of Jaymon for how he handled such a dire situation, adding that he now has a new friend.

"(The man) was there and he gave Jaymon a little acrylic prism he had made as a gift," Hall said. "And while we were there, another man walked right up to Jaymon, grabbed his hand really earnestly and said, 'Thank you for saving my friend.' I thought that was really special."