Actor Jesse Hutch is best known for his roles in romantic comedies and superhero series, but before he discovered his hidden talent, he nearly lost his life in a whitewater rafting accident a few years ago. And he thanks Jesus for saving him. Hatch has appeared in a number of romantic comedies, including the 2023 film “The Great American Family.” Christmas Blessingssuperhero projects, etc. Batwoman and ArrowBut more than 20 years ago, he was working as a rafting guide in his native Canada, trying to find his path in life.
“That was the last job I was really working on right before I got the opportunity to pursue acting,” he said in the interview. Jesus Calling Podcast.
He had been working as a guide for five years when he nearly drowned on the job. The incident began when the raft hit a rapid and two guests were thrown overboard. One of them grabbed Hatch’s jacket and pulled him overboard as well.
“I fell in the water and flipped left and right, every direction,” he said. “All of a sudden my ears popped and I thought, ‘Oh, that hurts. This is the first time.’ I’d gone deeper than I expected. And I opened my eyes, looked around, and I thought, sure enough, this must be the Green Room. OK, I’ve heard of this place. Don’t panic. Stay calm. Remember your training, OK?”
Hatch had been thrown overboard many times while on the job, but this time was different.
“I tried to swim again but the current was too strong and I was swept away. So at this point I To just Get on it You can’t beat the river so you’re out. So I just relax, which means I stop using energy on anything. Free my arms, free my legs, and don’t use any energy trying to control it or do anything. I just float, and then hopefully I get some oxygen in my bloodstream. … I knew I had to hold on to everything I had.”
At last, Hutch felt an irresistible urge to breathe.
“You get to a point where your body starts to do what it’s supposed to do: breathe,” he said on the podcast. “Logically, at that point you still have control of your muscles. And you say, ‘No, I can’t breathe underwater.’ And you feel your body say, ‘Okay, now I need oxygen.’ And you say, ‘Oh, oh, but I don’t have oxygen. I’m underwater.’ And your body says, ‘Oh, that’s good, but I’ll breathe now.’ And you say, ‘No, I’m not.’ And I honestly don’t know how long that battle lasted in my mind, but it felt quite long.
“And in the end, I lost the battle. When you drink water, it’s not the same sensation as when you breathe water. If you’ve ever seen wet concrete, it feels like it’s pouring into your nose and mouth at lightning speed and filling your whole body. And you immediately feel full, you feel heavy, you feel like you weigh like 2,000 pounds. That was the weirdest moment of my journey so far. That’s when I thought, ‘Wow, I’m done. I have nothing left.'”
Hatch knew his life was in God’s hands.
“At that point I just thought, ‘Okay, God, you’reSo, what should we do? Here’s the point.t whI just need to lean on you and feel the most at peace “I am in your hands, everything you can do for me. I am under your control. And then, at last, I rose to the surface.”
Witnesses said he was in the water “between 11 and 22 minutes.” He was resuscitated.
“And for some reason, I remember people hitting me in the chest,” he told Yes Calling magazine. Podcast: “And then I rememberedDo soI kinda“I was rushed to the hospital in a car, and I remember waking up in a pressure chamber in the hospital, and they slowly brought the pressure in my head back down to the right level – because I’d basically sunk too fast and surfaced too fast. I still had some issues, but the fact that I’m alive is a miracle in itself. The fact that I can talk, walk, think – I’m an actor, and my job is completely dependent on me being able to speak, think, hear and act. So it really is a miracle that I’m alive, and I owe it all to God.”
God supported him then, and Hatch says God continues to support him now. carry He is now married and has three children.
“In the Bible, there’s a story about a big storm coming and everybody panics. Everyone sees Jesus asleep in a boat,” Hatch says. “You look to Jesus and you see Jesus asleep in a boat. He’s asleep because he’s sleeping peacefully. When you see a storm, naturally you lose your peace and you panic. I look at my marriage through that lens. How do I raise my kids? How do I handle money? How do I handle my community, my friends, strangers, my job? I mean, the list goes on. Basically everything in life.”
Photo credit: ©Facebook/Jesse Hatch
Michael Faust He has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years, and his work has appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, Christian Post, Leaf Chronicle, Toronto Star and Knoxville News Sentinel.
