“I’ve been through the wringer,” says Pritchard, opening his shirt to reveal a wild crucifix shaped scar, “but here I am.”
The surfer whose heart blew out while paddling into the lineup at Melbourne’s wave tank back in June, and who was put into a coma in hozzy, has made a miraculous recovery.
Brett Pritchard, who is forty-seven, was pulled from the water by other shredders who saw his body floating.
“I had a plumbing problem which caused an electrical issue,” Pritchard told 7News.
Pool lifeguards kept him alive with CPR for twenty minutes until paramedics arrived.
“What they did is essentially save my life,” he said.
It wasn’t a pretty scene.
“It was weird,” said one witness. “They did CPR on him and then put a sheet over him and we all assumed the worst. He seemed very dead as awful as that sounds.”
The water, even this early in winter, was “shockingly cold,” said the witness. “I felt like I had a heart attack when I went under.”
Even though the pool is empty for its annual winter maintenance program, Pritchard says he ain’t deterred by his sudden acquaintance with death.
“It won’t be big waves when I first get out there, I think we’ll be looking at knee-high ones,” he said. “I’ll continue to do it for the rest of my life.”
