SPOKANE -- The two young men responsible for saving Robert Yamada's life when he dove into a sandbar at Lake Roosevelt last summer were honored Thursday as Hometown Heroes by the Red Cross.

Devin Stuck and Sean Caskey performed CPR for 45 minutes on Robert Yamada, giving him enough oxygen to get him to the hospital alive. Doctors were in awe at the amount of oxygen Robert received from his friends and the fact that his brain was never deprived of oxygen, which means he suffered no brain damage.

It started out as a typical day at the lake according to Devin, but then Robert smashed into the lake's bottom when he dove from shore.

“Robert didn't come up and when he was floating there Devin and I realized something was wrong and pulled him to shore,” Devin said. “He was unresponsive, did not look good, checked pulse, checked for breath, and there was none of it.

The two friends didn't panic though. Devin immediately started CPR while Sean ran to a cabin to find a phone to call for help.

“It was a scary situation but I knew the only way to pull through was to have full confidence and keep talking to him, tell him to pull through, hang in there, he's got it,” Devin said.

Those close to Yamada are grateful for the duo's efforts.

“When they saved my son's life, they saved mine too,” Robert's father John said.

John was among those honoring the two Thursday.

“I wouldn't have missed this for the world,” he said.

Robert is now a quadriplegic and can't breathe on his own.

“He's dealing with a lot right now, and he's doing it very courageously,” John said.

Even though the friends were honored, they wish things had turned out differently.

“It's really special, feels good to get recognized for it, but I wish it never happened,” Sean said.