19-year-old school pupil left paralyzed after swimming accident in California

A 19-year-old San Diego State University pupil is going through a life-altering restoration after a swimming accident at Pacific Beach left him paralyzed from the chest down.

Ethan McCoy, an aspiring bodily therapist who had been coaching for an Ironman competitors subsequent 12 months, was swimming with buddies close to Crystal Pier on Aug. 30 when the accident occurred.

“He wasn’t too far out. He caught a nasty wave. He remembers impacting the sandbar and remembers mendacity within the water. He could not breathe, as a result of he was face down,” said Jim McCoy, Ethan’s father.

Ethan’s friends pulled him from the water and got help. At the hospital, he underwent surgery for three shattered vertebrae in his neck. His spinal cord was partially severed, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.

“You can see it in his face. The devastation … the questioning. Him figuring out his life has modified, in methods he’s solely starting to grasp at this level,” McCoy said.

The past three weeks have been what McCoy describes as “a rollercoaster of feelings” for the family.

“It’s devastating. It’s arduous to place phrases into it,” he said. “It breaks your coronary heart.”

Despite the uncertainty surrounding his recovery, Ethan has already begun attacking his rehabilitation with the same drive he brought to athletics in high school, where he played soccer and swam.

“His moods come and go, and you’ll count on. But working bodily remedy, you may see the drive in him. That’s all the time how he is been. He responded that method to his coaches,” McCoy said.

Doctors have told the family that Ethan will likely never walk again, but his father says his son has set a goal of defying those odds.

“Ethan would not put limitations on himself; we cannot try this both. We will let him dream, and go and get that dream,” McCoy said.

On Friday, Ethan was flown to Chicago, where he will continue his recovery at a specialized rehabilitation facility.

A GoFundMe marketing campaign has been established to assist the household with mounting medical bills.

This story was originally published by Michael Chen with the Scripps News Group in San Diego.