A mission born of a suicide leap

Kevin Hines wants to share his story with others who need to hear it.

By JUSTIN GEORGE, Times Staff Writer
Published November 7, 2007

Kevin Hines, left, and Dr. Daniel Reidenberg are speaking this week at the Florida Suicide Prevention Symposium in Tampa.
	[Carrie Pratt | Times]

TAMPA - One day seven years ago, Kevin Hines took two bus rides to the Golden Gate Bridge.

In the past weeks, he had thought Steven Spielberg would show up and give him a movie part. He ran from postal trucks out to kill him. He saw medieval beasts over his bed.

On the bridge, a voice from within roared for 40 minutes: "You must die."

He went over the edge with fatal intentions, like some of the 2,410 Floridians who killed themselves last year and a trio of Tampa victims who made news recently, including Cuban exile Carlos Manuel Soto, 52, an Ybor City artist, on Monday. Mark Holland, 56, the owner of the famous Gram's Place hostel in Tampa Heights, on Sunday. Stanley Nicholas Pinder, 69, of Brandon, who died Oct. 27.

Four seconds. 220 feet. 75 mph

On Sept. 25, 2000, Hines hit bottom.

* * *

Today, scores of state government, health and nonprofit officials are assembled at the Embassy Suites as part of the third annual Florida Suicide Prevention Symposium.

The gathering allows outreach workers and researchers to share ideas to reduce Florida's suicide rate: 13.1 people per 100,000 in 2006, more than 2 points higher than the national rate in 2004.

Today, Kevin Hines will speak at the symposium.

* * *

Maybe it was the woman who saw him jump and called her friend in the Coast Guard. Maybe it was his sturdy 5-foot-7, 135-pound body, hardened by playing football in high school. Maybe it was the sea lion that nudged his body above water the entire time.

He remembers, he says. He was conscious. "I attribute it to God," he says.

As he recovered, a Franciscan brother prayed with him each day.

Hines refused to talk about his attempt when he walked back into his church for the first time wearing a back brace. The monsignor would not let him walk away. He urged him to speak to a group of middle school students.

Hines refused again. But his father made him reconsider.

He shook when he read a speech he wrote and was overcome when teens responded, saying they had thought about suicide and knew others battling mental illness.

"I had to do this," Hines said he realized. He has talked about his illness since.

He came to realizethat more than 80 percent of people treated for mental illness get better. He wants to spread that message.

How?

"You come with a story they can relate to," he says.

Who to call

National Suicide Prevention Lifelines, 1-800-273-TALK.

[Last modified November 6, 2007, 23:27:18]