Tragic Patrick Day’s boxing coach Joe Higgins is 9/11 firefighter who says ‘Pat saved my life’ after Twin Towers trauma

THE boxing world has been rocked by the tragic death of Patrick Day.

He cruelly suffered a brain injury after he was knocked out in the 10th round by Charles Conwell in their super welterweight bout last Saturday, which put Day in a coma.

Four days later the super-fit fighter passed away in a Chicago hospital aged just 27.

His trainer Joe Higgins joined his family in a bedside vigil as they prayed Day would recover.

For Higgins, 58, has already had his life rocked by tragedy – and it was Day that lifted him out of a miserable existence.

The coach was in the midst of a terrible depression after having two throat surgeries, an assortment of esophageal ailments and post traumatic stress disorder when Day walked into his life.

Higgins, from Freeport, New York, was one of the many firefighters that were called to the scene of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Higgins was an emergency responder from Ladder 111 in Bed-Stuy, while his brother Timothy, also a fireman, was first on the scene with Company 252 in Bushwick.

Sadly, Tim lost his life that day and it took many months before his body was found – frozen in a heroic moment.

“My brother was found on top of a civilian woman, and we think he was trying to save her,” Higgins told Yahoo Sports.

“There are stories I’ve been told from people who were there that saw him that he saved 20 people’s lives.”

GROUND ZERO

Desperate to find survivors, Higgins returned to the Twin Towers and began digging among the building’s remnants, which had collapsed into a huge crater.

“As bad as the pile was, I think the hole was worse,” Higgins recalled.

“The excavation was finer. You could see the metallic dust in the lights at night.

“It was going right through our masks. You could taste it.”

Every second he spent there was slowly killing him in the asbestos-choking conditions.

“Nothing could drag us out of that hole,” he remembered. “We stayed to the very last day.”

Higgins retired soon after, strangled by grief, when he saw pals who had joined him at the clean-up site dying from cancer.

He was at his lowest ebb.

A CHANCE MEETING

In the summer of 2006, Higgins, an amateur boxer in his day, was taking his frustrations out on an old Everlast heavy bag in his garage.

This is when a skinny 14-year-old boy walked-in, curious about the craft of boxing.

“You always go into someone’s house without permission?” Higgins asked, before enquiring about the teen’s name.

It was Patrick Day, he was a neighbour, and immediately he was measured up by Higgins who invited him to pummel the heavy bag too.

And he wasn’t perturbed by the hard task-master.

Day returned the next day, then the day after, impressing his new mentor with his spirit and willingness to learn.

“You’re having too much fun doing this. Time to go to the gym,” Higgins told his new protege and he invited him to Freeport PAL, which he ran and where sports facilities included an old-fashion boxing club.

The new friendship was not lost on Higgin’s wife Jesse.

“That kid from across the street,” his wife, Jesse, told him, “he makes you feel better.”

However, Day’s parents still needed convincing.

His father, a doctor, and mother, a deeply-religious translator at the United Nations, had hoped their son would follow a more academic path.

Later, Day wouldn’t disappoint them. Alongside winning the New York Golden Gloves, the National PAL Championship and a U.S. National Championship, he studied for an associates degree in nutrition, before earning a bachelor’s degree in health and wellness when he went pro.

“I’m not the stereotypical boxer story,” he told the ESPN back in June.

“I love to fight. What’s in your heart doesn’t depend on your socioeconomic status.”

A SAD END

In the windy city Day fought his final fight against Conwell last weekend.

Higgins was distraught his “special kid” was left fighting for his life after he was floored by his opponent.

“I’m dying. I feel like I’m responsible, like I let him down. My special kid,” Higgins wrote in a text to ESPN.

He added: “Pat saved my life. And now I’m praying God saves his.”

But Day didn’t make it, and Conwell, 21, was left remorseful. He penned an emotional letter to Day that was shared on social media.

“I never meant this to happen to you, all I wanted to do was win,” he wrote. “If I could take it all back, I would. No-one deserves this to happen to them.”

Moved by Conwell’s words, Higgins opened up a Twitter account to respond to the despondent boxer.

He replied to Conwell’s message: “Hello Charles, I am Patrick Day’s trainer Joe Higgins.

“I just wanted you to know that we do understand what you must be going thru as well.

“As devastated as we are we realize you are equally devastated.

“We know if it was the other way around we would be just as distraught.

“I too am distraught because I feel responsible but do realize there is no fault.

“Stay strong and please don’t think we blame you.”