NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Sometimes a great friendship can spring from the most unexpected circumstances.
There is a lot to the story of Raymond Bruce Hill.
"Bruce, where do we begin?" I asked Hill.
"That's a good question," he nodded. "Where do we begin?"
Hill has lived a hard life. He was a heroin addict for 20 years. In 2019, he was staying at a Nashville hotel. Feeling totally alone, he overdosed. A hospital team saved his life.
"That's where this journey really takes off," Hill said.
Hill just walked more than 600 miles, making stops to advocate for suicide prevention and addiction recovery. Even in his new purpose of helping others, Hill has still had hard days.
"That house was so full of smoke, it was choking me out," Hill said. "The heat was extraordinary."
Hill said the cause is still undetermined in the fire that took his Waverly home. He ended up at TriStar Skyline with bad burns on his arms and feet. It was there, Hill met someone important; Dr. Tommy Tran.
"We share a lot of commonalities," Tran said.
"We're in different lanes, but we have the same purposes," Hill agreed. "It's all about others."
Hill underwent surgery.
"Bruce had second degree burns," Tran said. "We were able to get him healed with minimal scarring."
What Tran found was Hill was most concerned the burns would force him to miss an important event.
"I told him, 'I was going to jump for you. I will jump for you,'" Tran said.
Now, what does that mean? Well, as part of helping people, Hill founded Recovery Warriors: whatwasisnomore.
"A lot of people in recovery are still suffering from a lot of trauma and PTSD that they're not healing from, right?" Hill said. "Skydiving does that. If I can help you conquer fear, then you can conquer anything."
For one of Hill's skydiving events, Tran had just agreed to a jump.
"Are you used to jumping out of planes?" I asked Tran.
"No!"
Still, Tran now knew there's a lot to Hill's story.
"Bruce was a fentanyl survivor before he met me, and then he was a burn survivor," Tran said. "That took a lot. As a friend, I had to keep my promise."
"As we jumped, I felt the sudden pull on my harness, and then I didn't feel anything!" Tran continued. "I opened my eyes, and I was falling. It was such a freeing sensation. I was having such a wonderful time. I was screaming. During those two minutes, I was in absolute joy. It was all in the name of fentanyl survivors, burn survivors."
"Who does that, for real?" Hill asked. "This is a trauma surgeon in the burn unit!"
At that very lowest moment for Hill, he felt alone. Today, Tran is one of the many who prove to Hill, people are always there to help in the journey.
"To have someone come in, give us a hand, bring us back up is really amazing," Tran said.
"That's why I do what I do," Hill nodded. "It's why you do what you do."
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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