'Natural Instincts' Drove Honeymoon Island Hero to Help Others

He gave his life to save an unknown child, and for that, he will be remembered as a hero.

Alan Hall, 65, of Land O’ Lakes was spending Easter Sunday at Honeymoon Island with his family when he noticed three children struggling in a strong tidal current.

Their parents were able to come to the aid of two of them but were unable to reach a third, which is when Hall .

Hall was able to reach the child and push her out of the tidal current so that she could swim back to the shore. But immediately afterward, witnesses say, Hall leaned backwards, floating on his back for a period before turning face-down in the water.

Hall was retrieved by a boater and brought to shore but was unresponsive and not breathing, according to a Florida Department of Environmental Protection report. He was transported to Mease Dunedin Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

"When he went out in the water, he didn't think he was going to be a hero," his son Gregory Hall told News Channel 8. "He didn't think anything. It was just natural instincts, the way he is. He just ran out there."

The Cheshire, Conn. native, retired to Florida five months ago, Gregory Hall told News Channel 8.

Alan Hall and his wife, who was the first to administer CPR to him, would have celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in May.

The parents of the young girl he saved went to the hospital to share their gratitude and their condolences to Hall's family, News Channel 8 reported.

The family was vacationing from Ohio, according to a DEP report.

"He knew someone needed help and to give that chance a girl to live and to live her life, I know meant everything to him," Gregory Hall told 10 News.

His father would have done it for anybody, Gregory Hall said.