Hero Dad Dies Saving Son – Michael Grady, aka Mike Grady, died a hero while saving his son from drowning in a fast-flowing mountain stream after the boy’s foot got trapped beneath a boulder just below a waterfall.

Mike Grady, an accountant from Maitland, Florida was on vacation in the North Carolina mountains with his wife Lisa and two sons — Austin and Tyler. They hiked to a popular waterfall and Mike watched 12-year-old Austin frolicking in the rushing water below, which is a popular mountain swimming hole.

Then things went horribly wrong.

For 40 minutes, Cesar Gonzalez, a man vacationing in the North Carolina mountains with his family, lay on a rock on the edge of a raging river, clinging to Mike Grady and his 12-year-old son.

He’d never met them before, but he’d heard the screams for help: Michael Grady and his son, Austin were trapped. Austin had tried to slide down a waterfall, but the churning white water had pinned him against a boulder and wedged his foot beneath it.

For at least 30 minutes — some witnesses say it was more than an hour — Michael Grady held onto his son, keeping the boy’s head above water. Rescuers managed, after many failed efforts, to wrench the child free, but his father died in the stream.

Everyone who saw what happened Sunday in the Cullasaja River near Highlands, N.C., agrees that Michael Grady, 52, was a hero. He plunged into a swift-running river and saved his son.

But before firefighters and paramedics arrived, a collection of strangers, all vacationing at or enjoying the popular swimming hole at the bottom of the falls, worked desperately together to save father and son. They were Gonzalez — the man on the rock — his 15-year-old son, two men and a 14-year-old boy.

“Good people were trying to help him,” said Malcolm Webb, 42, an investment adviser from Bloomington, Ind., who had waded into the rushing water, a rope tied beneath his arms, trying to help.

Webb was able to grab Austin from the left, but because the rocks on the bottom of the stream were slick with algae, Webb couldn’t get a firm footing. After a second attempt, he was swept downstream.

Water was pouring over the top of the boy, Webb said. Michael Grady positioned himself just upstream so that he would take the brunt of the water’s force, which was pouring downstream at about 17,000 gallons a minute.

“It was like a fire hose coming over the backs of their heads … kicking water into their faces,” said Janet Jarriel, of Macon, Ga., Webb’s ex-wife, who also was at the falls that day.

The water tore the shirt off Michael Grady’s back.

Gonzalez, 38, of Hilton Head, S.C., anchored the rescue effort, witnesses say. He stretched out on the rock, and for at least 40 minutes had Michael or Austin Grady — sometimes both at the same time — in his grasp.

They tried “I don’t have a clue how many times,” he said, to wrench the boy free.

Finally, Michael Grady managed to slip an old rope, one that Gonzalez had found hanging nearby, beneath his son’s arms. Gonzalez and 14-year-old Blake Roberts, vacationing with his family from Macon, Ga., gave a mighty pull. At the same moment, Michael Grady again heaved his son upward.

“It’s almost as though this father had this Herculean ability to lift up this child,” said Stanley Roberts, Blake’s father, who also was trying to help.

Austin slid free, and there was a cheer, witnesses said. Gonzalez’s son, Fernando, 15, who was standing in the water near the opposite shore, grabbed him and held on before the 12-year-old could be swept downstream.

Fernando Gonzalez and a paramedic hauled the boy out of the water. Moments later, Austin was on a gurney, and paramedics were prepping him for a trip to the hospital. He suffered minor injuries.

Michael Grady, though, was himself stuck.

Paramedics and firefighters from Highland’s volunteer fire department tried to free him. One relieved Gonzalez, keeping hold of Grady’s hand. Others stretched additional ropes to him and handed him a life vest, which he put on.

But the icy water, which was pounding his head and back then back-splashing into his face, was too much. Firefighters couldn’t reach his head to hold it out of the spray or above the shoulder-deep stream, and he passed out. He died within moments.

“He just kind of gently rolled his head,” Stanley Roberts said. “It was like all of his energy was completely gone.”

Mike Grady died doing what any dad would do, heroically struggling non-stop to save his son from certain death and getting the most important job in the world done right before his strength finally gave out.

Rest In peace Mike Grady, for you have lived and loved well…

And that’s the latest news on Hero Dad Dies Saving Son.

Tags: dad dies saving son, drowning, hero dad dies saving son, michael grady, mike grady

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