He counted to 10, he said, and couldn't do it. He remembers putting his hands on the railing and looking out toward San Francisco. I was scared that I wasn't making the right choice. "I walked out onto the bridge, and I was really scared. He didn't want anyone to know what he was about to do. Unlike Kevin, once on the bridge, Ken went to great lengths to appear inconspicuous. "He's swimming! And all of us were like, what? He's swimming! And a light switch goes off and this goes from a body recovery to a rescue," said Butler. The day he found Kevin is one that he'll never forget. He has not been able to shake those body recovery missions. He believes that many of the people do not die on impact and that it's an agonizing way to go. Coast Guard Station Golden Gate, he pulled 57 bodies from the water - and just one live man. No one will ever know that you knew you made a mistake.' And I broke the surface.'" "I remember thinking very clearly, 'Kevin you can't die here, if you die here, no one will ever know that you didn't want to. In blinding pain, he tried to swim upwards. Suddenly, he found himself desperate to live. Moments before, he had been determined to die. "I missed severing my spinal cord by two millimeters." "I shattered my T12, L1 and L2 lower vertebrae upon impact," said Kevin. His back was broken he found out later how severe his injuries were. Disoriented under the water, he couldn't tell which was up or down. He fell about 223 feet and hit the water in a seated position, likely at 75 miles per hour. "The thoughts in those four seconds, it was 'What have I just done? I don't want to die. As I fell, all I wanted to do was reach back to the rail, but it was gone," said Kevin. But he remembers his few, fleeting thoughts and a flood of emotion. It only took about four seconds for Kevin to hit the water, and he says it felt exactly that fast. Nobody.' I took these hands, and I catapulted into freefall," said Kevin. "It was a split-second decision, my thought was, 'Absolutely nobody cares. Within moments, he jumped from the bridge. He took the picture and returned her camera. "That's when she pulled out a camera and said 'Will you take my picture?' And I was crushed." I'm 19, and I don't have to die," said Kevin. And I thought, she smiled at me, she's going to ask me if I'm ok. "Blond curly hair, giant sunglasses that didn't fit her face, and a smile. On the span, a woman came up to him on his left side. Kevin had been waiting for just one person to reach out to him. Instead, he kept driving toward San Francisco and pulled up at the Golden Gate Bridge. He describes hating his job as an architectural drafter. "I told my wife, 'Hey, I'm going to do a little extra work, I'm going to be home late,' knowing full well that I was not going to live through the day." That's the depression talking, that they would be better off without me," said Ken. "I started feeling like I was going to help them by dying. He describes feeling like a burden to his family. Unbeknownst to his wife, Ken was spiraling downwards. Ken had a startlingly similar experience: "I just vaulted over, and I realized, at that moment, this is the stupidest thing I could have done. "The millisecond my legs cleared it, the millisecond of true free fall, instant regret for my actions," said Kevin. They want you to know the overwhelming emotion they both had the moment their fingertips left the railing. Both jumped off of the Golden Gate Bridge - and survived. In fact, Kevin Hines and Ken Baldwin are little more than strangers who happen to share an incredible connection. SAN FRANCISCO (WPVI) - On Baker Beach, it appears a pair of tourists are talking like old friends, just trying to take a perfect selfie with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. It's a story of mistakes, survival, and second chances. Both say the moment their fingers left the railing, they felt instant regret. They jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, and survived. Meet two men with an incredible connection.
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