Peyton Hillis opens up about recovery after January swimming accident

Peyton Hillis nearly gave his life to keep his son and niece from losing theirs. But months after his heroic feat, he’s still struggling, physically and mentally.

“I don’t think my lungs will ever get back to where they needed to be,” Peyton Hillis said in an interview with Michael Strahan for Good Morning America. “Physically, it’s coming along okay. Mentally things [are] coming along a lot slower. I’m just trying to take it one day at a time.”

Let’s take it back to that day in January, when Hillis, who played seven seasons in the NFL, brought his family, including his kids, his mother and sister, for a post-holiday outing at a Pensacola, Fla. beach. It had stormed the night before, but there were no warnings in regards to rip tides or high waves.

His mother’s screams alerted him that the kids weren’t OK in the water.

“I hear my mom screaming and so, I looked at her and she pointed out to my son, and she says, ‘Orry and (niece) Camilla are drowning,’” Peyton Hillis said, adding that he’s not sure if he saw any lifeguards in the area.

“And so, I didn’t even think, I reacted and started running into the water,” he said.

EXCLUSIVE: "It is 100% a miracle that somebody didn't die.”

Former NFL running back @thepeytonhillis recounts saving his son and niece from a rip current while swimming at a Florida beach earlier this year to @michaelstrahan. https://t.co/pLuI3UJRiO pic.twitter.com/9RGABST2EP

— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 13, 2023

Hillis swam to his son, then saw that his niece was in far more danger. He fought the instinct to save Orry, first. “I knew that I had to pass him up to get to Camille first. Because, you know, if I didn’t then there’s no way she would’ve made it. … And so what happened … I swam past my son, and I got to Camille, and she starts freakin’ out, you know, ‘We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die.'”

He put his niece on a boogie board and pushed her to shore. Then he returned for Orry, who wasn’t in good shape when he got back to him. Hillis said he was “limp” in the water as 10 to 12-foot waves roiled the water.

“He didn’t have any more strength in him to swim and I’m sitting there holding him,” Peyton Hillis said. “You can’t swim and you’re holding him, you’re seeing his eyes roll back in the back of his head.”

As it turned out, Peyton Hillis very nearly didn’t make it himself. He got his son to within 20 to 30 yards from shore before he collapsed. First responders airlifted him to a nearby hospital. Hillis spent 11 days in ICU on life support. He suffered both respiratory and renal failure.

The former Arkansas Razorback regained consciousness after 10 days. The 37-year-old said please don’t call him a hero. “I call myself a dad,” he said.

“If you’re not here for your loved ones, or your family, or your friends, why are you here?” he asked.