Professional golfer Brian Harman says woman who helped save his son remains in coma
Professional golfer Brian Harman is opening up about an accident involving his 6-year-old son.
While talking with reporters at the RSM Classic on St. Simons Island, Georgia, Harman explained that a family friend is now in a coma after helping save his young son from drowning, according to PGATour.com./ reports.
Harman told reporters that his wife, kids, and their friend Cathy Dowdy were on vacation in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, when his son went boogie boarding in the ocean.
Harman, 37, was competing in a tournament in China and wasn’t present when the Oct. 13 accident took place.
“My son was involved, he was out boogie boarding with one of his really good friends, got ripped out to sea by just a rip current,” he said, according to PGATour.com.
“We get ‘em here,” Harman said of the rip current. “It’s not something that’s abnormal, but this was an abnormally bad one.
“Cathy Dowdy, a family friend — really, we call ‘em family friends but they’re family — she went in the water,” Harman continued.
“She went in the water after my son. He’s 6. Couldn’t get to him. Another gentleman coming down the beach, Crane Cantrell, jumped in. He makes it out fine; Cathy (got) injured really badly.”
Harman said Dowdy has “been in a coma for going on six weeks now and so obviously our world down here was kind of turned on its head.”
Dowdy was brought to shore by a lifeguard who performed CPR before she was rushed to a nearby Mayo Clinic before she was transferred to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia.
The father went on to thank Dowdy for risking her own life to save his son’s.
“I wanted to use whatever platform I have to bring awareness to what Cathy did, what Crane did,” he said. “They disregarded their selves, went into the water, saved my son and how do you thank people like that?
“I don’t know other than to just say what you think. I think that bravery and doing something like that for people who aren’t your blood is just the most beautiful thing you can do in this life.”
The RSM Classic runs Nov. 21-24.
Harman is ranked 24th in the Official World Golf Ranking.