Biohazard’s Billy Graziadei Saved Two Lives Over the Weekend
All those years of stage diving and being aware among a sea of movement must have helped Biohazard vocalist and guitarist Billy Graziadei commit an apparent act of bravery over the weekend, as he apparently saved a woman from drowning in California’s Kern River.
According to a post on the musician’s Facebook page, the incident took place over the holiday weekend. After preventing a friend’s kid from meeting a watery demise, the New York native quickly sprung into action to save someone who’d been rafting down the river but somehow found herself helplessly bobbing through the current.
Rather than try to explain what allegedly happened, here’s Billy’s own words:
“A buddies son looked at me today while swimming across the raging Kern river and said ‘help’. I dove right in and brought him to shore without a second of hesitation.
“When I got back to shore, with adrenalin still pumping, a young girl floating in the middle of the river looking at me, with eyes locked onto her as I ran to the waters edge yelling to her if she was ok, she quickly screamed no! I dove and swam to her as quickly as I could. The last thing I saw before diving in was her head going under water. Never have I swam that fast before. When I reached her, I had her hold onto my shoulders to rest while I tried to navigate the insane current speeding down the Kern river valley. She said was dizzy and couldn’t swim. I quickly decided not to risk crossing the current again and decided to bring her safty on the other side of the river so she could rest while I evaluated her and my next move.
“When we arrived to the other shore, I calmed her down and reassured her that she would be ok. She told me she hit her head while coming down the rapids with her boy friend, both on the same raft. I asked her where her boyfriend was and she pointed to a rock ledge above us. I asked him if he was ok and he calmly replied yes while not breaking his composure. They [sic] oddly passive dude sat there and let me save his girl friends life without lifting a finger or showing any real concern. Maybe he was in shock, but most likely I thought to myself he is just from a different generation than I am.
“I made sure he was ok, sent him across the river in his raft with someone else towing him while I gave attention to his GF. I got her a life vest, put her in the raft and brought her safely back to the other side of the river where she was evaluated my a local nurse. I’m #thankful to have been there and focused enough to see these two situations unfold before my eyes.”
It takes a lot of physical and mental fortitude to risk your own life for someone else’s. River currents are no joke. According to the CDC, fatal unintentional drownings happen about 4,000 times a year in the U.S., equating for about 11 deaths a day, which is fucking wild. In fact, more than half of both fatal and nonfatal drownings for people 15 years and over taking place in natural bodies of water.
So good on Billy. Two people had a significantly better Labor Day Weekend because of his actions.
