"It’s going to be a marathon not a sprint but we work every day to make sure he is surrounded with love, laughter and Ohana."
In an update via the GoFundMe page set-up to pay for the medical bills of former world champ Sunny Garcia his family reports,
“We are taking one day at a time and celebrating each little triumph. Sunny is a warrior and fighting everyday to get better and stronger. He has said a few words and is now in therapy daily – physical, speech and occupational. The family thanks you for your continued support for Sunny as he continues to heal. It’s going to be a marathon not a sprint but we work every day to make sure he is surrounded with love, laughter and Ohana.”
A family friend, Janae Twisselman, told the Hawaiian news channel Khon 2, “With the family members, he’s paying attention to voices. He can follow people’s faces. He’s moving his head. He’s speaking a few words. When he first started, he was in an induced coma a few months ago, and now we’re in a place where he’s functioning completely on his – you know for his physical self, his body – on his own.”
In April, Sunny, a perennial Triple Crown winner, was found unconscious at his home in Oregon, almost dead, and supposedly by his own hand.
A few weeks later, Sunny was off sedation, but still in a coma, with doctors treating his kidney and liver with dialysis (an induced coma, where the body and brain is anaesthetised often results in further complications). It was reported, then, that Sunny was “surprising doctors as he continues to get better.”
So far, $121,000 has been raised, of a $150k goal, to cover his myriad expenses.
Significant donations came from Jason Mamoa ($2000), Bruce Irons ($1500), GoPro’s Justin Wilkenfeld ($2000), moto-king Carey Hart ($1000), Hawaiian photographer Peter Hodgson ($1000) as well as cameos from Lyndie Irons, Nick and Tom Carroll, Luke Stedman, Ross Williams, Kirk Flintoff and Cory Lopez.
“If you are my friend I’ll go to war for you. I’ll give you the shirt off my back. But if I don’t know you and you are talking shit, or messing with my family or friends? Then I will punch you in the face. I don’t care. The press has always made me out to be a rough character but it is not who I really am. I just don’t have time for people I don’t coming up to me and causing problems.” SUNNY GARCIA
The most surprising donation came from Percy “Neco” Padaratz, who fled Pipeline in 2007 after he hassled hell out of Sunny in their Pipe Masters heat.
On the beach, Neco jumped a fence and climbed into the relative safety of the judges’ tower and was given a police escort back to his house.
When asked about his tough-guy image by Chas Smith, Sunny said, “I don’t fucking care. I don’t think of myself that way. If you are my friend I’ll go to war for you. I’ll give you the shirt off my back. But if I don’t know you and you are talking shit, or messing with my family or friends? Then I will punch you in the face. I don’t care. The press has always made me out to be a rough character but it is not who I really am. I just don’t have time for people I don’t coming up to me and causing problems. You would, too.”