(tense music)- [Narrator] Heading to

the marina, coastal SouthCarolina Game Wardens,

Tommy Buckhannon and Dale Tanner

knew it'd be a busy day on the water.

- We had an incoming tidecoupled with the inlet,

it makes for choppy waters.

A lot of people on boats, alot of people on jet skis,

very congested.

- [Narrator] Then after twohours patrolling the waterways,

Officer Buckhannon spottedsomething about 150 yards away.

- I looked up and I told Dale,

I said, "Dale, is that a body?"

And he turned at the same time,

he said, "Yes."

He was face down.

- [Narrator] They pulled upto find a stranded jet ski

and a young man in his early twenties.

Another jet skier had also stopped

and helped them pull thevictim into the patrol boat.

There were obvious signs of head trauma.

- Just looking at him,

he was, he was bad off,he was very serious.

He had blood coming out of his ears.

He had blood coming out of his nose.

Had a pulse but his breathingwas extremely labored.

- [Narrator] Officer Buckhannontended to the young man,

as Officer Tanner navigated

through the heavy holiday boat traffic.

- Time is not on our side,

for both Dale and I, we were both praying.

I remember calling for a helicopter

and I knew that it was gonna take that

to get him where he neededto be at the trauma center.

- [Narrator] The jet skiertook off towards the boats

clustered near BirdIsland, North Carolina,

looking for someone who knew the victim.

All they had was a last name

pulled from the registration number

on the victim's jet ski, Hollingsworth.

- And all of a sudden thisguy comes up and he says,

"Hollingsworth, Hollingsworth,

"yellow ski, yellow ski."

- Mark and Vonda Hollingsworth,

who'd been bringing theirfamily to Bird Island for years,

knew at once it was their22 year old son, Kyle.

- Is it bad?

And he just looked and me and said,

shook his head and said, "Yeah, it's bad."

And that's when it hit me.

The first thing I saidwas, "Lord, help me."

- [Narrator] Vondaimmediately jumped on the back

of the man's jet ski.

- I said, "Take me, take me."

- [Narrator] As Mark andthe rest of the family

made their way to the Marina,

Vonda and the jet ski driversped towards the docks

where EMS was waiting.

- I was thinking, it's gonna be okay

because Kyle's such a daredevil

and you know, he justbounces back from everything.

- [Narrator] They arrived in time

to see Kyle loaded onto the helicopter.

- I saw the shorts that he was wearing

and I could tell he wasn't conscious.

And so, at that moment, I knew it was Kyle

and I knew it was bad.

And I heard the helicopter lift off.

I could not form thewords of a good prayer.

All I could say was, "Oh God, oh God."

And I knew it wascompletely out of my hands.

- [Narrator] Waiting for Kyle's arrival,

trauma surgeon, Dr. Antonio Pepe,

and his team got to work.

Initial reports were not promising

and they didn't know howlong he'd been in the water.

- At the time of assessingKyle, it was life or death.

Does he have a brain injury?

And the second one, and Ithink the most pressing one

was the degree of anoxiathat he may have sustained

from a drowning, in this case,

that would, you know, make therecovery much less promising.

- [Narrator] A CAT scan confirmed

Kyle had an epidural hematoma,or bleeding around the brain.

Immediately, doctorstook Kyle into surgery

to implant a device in hisskull to monitor brain pressure.

If it got too high, they wouldhave to open up his skull.

Kyle was in ICU, in amedically induced coma

by the time his family arrived.

- Dr. Pepe was like,

"Let just see how this goes,

"he's really strong.

"You know, I feel optimistiche's going to wake up."

- [Narrator] If he did wake up,

he could have any numberof neurological issues.

So the Hollingsworths reached out

to friends and family to pray.

- Everyone was praying.

Kyle's high school football coach

showed up at the hospital

and he started a Mississippi prayer chain,

and Kyle had kids that he graduated with

that had gone to different schools.

It was just so far reaching.

- [Narrator] Five daysafter Kyle was admitted,

the swelling on his brain subsided.

Doctors removed Kyle's monitoring device

and weaned him off medication,

but he still didn't wake up.

After another four daysof prayer and waiting.

- The head nurse came to me and said,

"Mrs Hollingsworth, your sonpulled the restraints up,

"twisted himself, and was off the bed

"in a prayer position onhis knees, like this."

And I said, "That's my boy.

"That's my boy."

He had so much life in him,

and when that happened,I knew, at that moment,

that God was going topull him through this.

I had no doubt.

- He regained consciousness.

He was starting torespond, starting to move,

which is a great prognostic indicator

that once you starthaving neurologic recovery

in the very early timeframe.

- [Narrator] Kyle remembersnothing of the accident

and not much of the hospital stay.

What he does remember is meeting

Officers Buckhannon and Tanner,

the day of his discharge.

The two men, who throughcourage and God's providence,

helped save his life.

- I got up and shook their hand.

I wanted to tell 'em thank you.

I had to show 'em, you know,how appreciative I was of them.

- I would say it was an emotional moment,

but he reached out under hisown strength and shook my hand.

And he mouthed, "Thank you."

It was very gratifying.

- [Dr. Pepe] There's so many factors

that could have gonewrong in this situation,

but Kyle didn't meet anyresistance all the way through,

just came straight through,

and this is what we hope for.

- [Narrator] Today, Kyleis back out on the water

with his family.

While he might takethings a little easier,

he's still living thelife God has given him.

- He is my God, my savior

and there's not a day that goes by

that I don't wake up and thank him,

even when I take thefirst breath of the day.

- It was all prayers and the good Lord

wanting to tell his story to somebody.

- No matter what happened,God deserved that glory

because he intervened inso many ways for Kyle.