Since the Golden
Gate Bridge opened
in 1937, thousands
of people have
tried to kill
themselves by leaping.
Only 34 have lived. Kevin Hines
is one of them.
On September 24, 2000, the paranoid and hallucinating
nineteen-‐year-‐old flung himself off the bridge in a suicide attempt. He fell
220 feet straight down into the San Francisco Bay, shattering his T12, L1, and
L2 vertebrae. He lacerated most of his
lower organs. A Coast Guard boat pulled Hines from the frigid waters, and
brought him to Marin General Hospital.
Thanks to a serendipitous, experimental surgery the plunge into the
water left almost no physical evidence on Hines’ body. He has a few scars, but
otherwise his body is whole again. He now works as a suicide prevention expert,
mental health advocate and peer counselor traveling the world to share his
story in the hopes of prevention more suicides and educating people about
wellness. His first book, Cracked Not Broken, a memoir of his was released in
July 2013. He was in the documentary
film, The Bridge. He sat across the table from Larry King on CNN. Several media
outlets have featured his story. He has spoken to high schools, colleges and
universities, clinicians, corporations, military personnel and
policymakers.
When Hines was recovering in the hospital after the bridge
jump, a priest visited him at his bedside. He asked Hines why he was there. “I
jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge,” he answered. The priest laughed and said,
“Oh yeah? And I’m the Pope.” But Hines’s father convinced the priest, and soon
he was a regular visitor. The priest encouraged Hines to talk about what he had
been through.
The first time Hines shared his story in public, it was to a group
of seventh and eighth graders at the middle school he had attended. He stayed
awake until three in the morning writing his speech (“Not good for my mental
health,” he jokes.) After he delivered it, he received 120 letters, one from
each of the students who had listened to him. Among those were six from
children who were suicidal. Because the letters were screened, those students
received help. That was the beginning of his mission. Hines has spoken to
hundreds of thousands of people since then, always with the same basic message:
You are not alone.
http://www.kevinhinesstory.com/