An Ohio mother took her 4-year-old son to a hockey game this month, but she didn't know that a stranger would jump in to help her son when he needed it most.
Asia Davis and her son Nasir went to a Cleveland Monsters hockey game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on April 11th. The puck was out of play and heading toward my son. At that moment, a stranger sitting next to me came to my rescue.
“It was like he knew the play was going to happen before it actually happened,” Davis told USA TODAY. “When I noticed the puck coming into the crowd, it was already in the crowd.”
When he reached out to stop the puck from hitting his son, the puck slipped through his fingers and went backwards. Davis remembers telling him he needed to be a goalie.
“He told me he played baseball,” she added.
She said the kind stranger talked to them here and there throughout the game and at one point took a photo with her son and a hockey puck.
“You'll always have a piece of her”:Florida teen saves father's life with kidney disease
Harnessing the power of the digital age to find Good Samaritans
Davis said her son was fast asleep holding a hockey puck when he returned home after the game. She took it and as she was reflecting on the day in her bed, she realized something.
“I just kept holding it and throwing it up and down,” she said. She said, “I tried hitting her in the head to see if it hurt, and she hurt, and I just thought, “Oh, this could have been really, really bad.'' . And I really wanted to thank him because he prevented a disaster from happening. ”
The next day, she contacted Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse to see if an employee would know who was sitting next to her that night. They couldn't help, so later that night she created a TikTok asking social media users to help find him.
She posted about the save at 2am on Saturday and received a DM from him by 10am.
The man, Andrew Podolak, sent her a message and she was able to thank him again. She also offered to treat him to the playoffs and maybe dinner or lunch for saving a young child.
“We were just so grateful,” she said, adding that once their story was shared online, the Cleveland Monsters also got involved.
Hero, boy and mother reunite at Cleveland Monsters game
They invited both Davis and Podolak to the April 13 game, where they high-fived and bumped fists with players.
Even better? Nasir will participate in the ceremonial puck drop before the game.
“Andrew told me he had anxiety, and at that point the anxiety hit us. It was insane,” she recalls. “His son had a puck drop. He was a little confused…He dropped it like three times before he was supposed to actually drop it.”
But she said the ceremony would be a memory he would remember for the rest of his life.
“The puck drop, all the interviews, all the media attention, it was all great, but at the end of the day, I'm just thankful that my son was okay and that Andrew was sitting there,” Davis said. .
Saleen Martin is a reporter for USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – 757. Follow her on Twitter.@SaleenMartin or email hersdmartin@usatoday.com.
