An Ohio woman who asked for help to identify a man who “literally saved my son’s life” at a hockey game last week has found her hero.
The woman, identified later by WMMS as Asia Davis, described the man as having been “really nice” to her and her 4-year-old son, Nasir — whose behavior was apparently not the best — before the incident.
“TikTok,” she said, “I need your help finding someone.”
“He has to be from Northeast Ohio, Akron, Cleveland area, somewhere near here,” she said.
The video below contained a still of the man she’s looking for — as well as dramatic footage that explained why she wanted to find him.
@asiafromakron Tiktok do your thing! @Cleveland Monsters @Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse #lakeeriemonsters #clevelandtok #216 #fyp #clevelandkids #foryoupage #greenscreen ♬ original sound – AsiaFromAkron
Davis said the footage was taken at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland on Thursday at what she called the Lake Erie Monsters game. (The Cleveland Monsters were formerly known as the Lake Erie Monsters, but changed their name in 2016.)
She said she was watching the game with her best friend and her son in the third period, when the game was getting “hectic,” with a lot of fights and on-ice action. “Stuff was going on,” she said.
“Now, out of nowhere, this puck comes out of heaven,” she said, “straight towards my son’s head.”
She showed the puck come off the ice, and then added a slowed-down version that clearly showed the puck’s movement toward her son.
“And he blocked it,” Davis said of the then-unknown Good Samaritan. “He blocked it.”
“My son had chips of ice in his hair, OK?” she added to indicate what a close call it had indeed been.
“And if you know anything about a hockey puck, it’s more dense than a baseball,” she said. “That thing is a flying [traumatic brain injury]. … I feel sick when I think about it, because I have the reaction time of sloth.
“This dude literally saved my son’s life,” she added. “He prevented a life-changing event from happening.”
After the event, the man told Davis that he also had a ticket for the seat next to him, but had chosen to sit immediately next to Nasir. “I was meant to be here,” he told her.
“And he was,” she agreed. “You cannot tell me God is not real.”
Because of the excitement of the movement, however, Davis left without getting the man’s name, and later felt she owned him for his actions.
“I owe that man lunch, dinner, another thank you — I mean, because I cannot imagine my baby getting hit with that hockey puck. Those things are hard, and they come off that ice fast,” she said.
“So if you know him, if you know him, please let me know,” she concluded.
The story had a very happy ending, according to WMMS.
“At last week’s Cleveland Monsters hockey game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, fan Andrew Podolak became a hero when he shielded four-year-old Nasir from a rogue hockey puck headed straight for the toddler’s head,” the outlet reported.
“The mom believes that Podalak’s presence in that moment was no coincidence calling it ‘divine intervention,’ and now that chance meeting has led to a friendship between them. In a post to social media, the Cleveland Monsters recognized their fans’ new bond and treated them to another game, where Nasir had the honor of dropping the puck.”
