“Makai McNamara is home!” says daddy Liam McNamara. “Thanks to God and everyone who saved his life!
There are few worse things in this life than anything even remotely unpleasant happening to your kid.
How Pipe Master Liam McNamara felt a week ago when word came that his boy Makai McNamara had been revived on the beach after a wipeout on an epic six-to-twelve-foot day ain’t hard to guess.
Makai McNamara’s little brother Landon, who won the Eddie a few weeks back, helped bring him to shore. Shortly after the accident he posted:
“They brought him back to life on the beach.There was life back in his eyes. He spoke words. The feelings where overwhelming. He is in the ICU right now & last update is he will be kept asleep for the next 72 hours in order to heal the best. right now we all need to send all of our healing energy & prayers his way. He is so strong and has so much life left in him. I love you so much big brother. I know he’d probably roust me for making this post cause he’s the real deal haha but I truly believe the collective positive energy and prayers make a difference so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.”
Over the course of a week since the accident, Liam has been drilling social media with updates on Makai’s condition along with a stream of thank-you notes to the surfers who dragged him out of the water and, particularly, the North Shore fire-fighter Kyle Foyle who resuscitated his kid on the sand.
“Makai, you f$&king scared me yesterday,” wrote Foyle after the accident. “For a few mins I thought I was holding my friend for the last time. The look in your eyes, the foam coming out of your mouth, your blood on my hand, the sound of your ribs cracking as @ianbachmann did compressions, the AED checking your body for a shock but it wasn’t your time.”
Kyle Foyle, a real good man to have in your corner or to deliver you back to this world.
In a touching video, we see Makai leaving Queens Hospital in Honolulu in a wheelchair but, soon, moving, a little tenderly it has to be said and not surprisingly, to embrace his friends and family.
“Makai McNamara is home!” writes daddy Liam. “Thanks God and everyone who saved his life! Thanks to his rock Malia Murphey who stood by his side and refused to let him be alone for a minute thru the whole ordeal! God is great and life is precious! Love and aloha to everyone!”
Pretty much everyone who’s laid a foot on the North Shore with a surfboard under their arm and a mission to complete paid their tributes below the line, including Martin Potter, Barton Lynch, Kala Alexander, Raimana Van Basolaer and Tom Carroll.
The long-term forecast for Makai is yet to be revealed but he’s got a lot of love in his corner.
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when times are bleak it seems cadres of life-saving assistance are in the fight place at the right time. when surfers&guards say they are ‘training’ we may goof but in an emergency those skills are all about one thing: see above. “Thanks God…”
Our Work is Not Done Yet. Think ’bout that when it happens…to one of us mortals…
generally in awe of all the real deal first responders , those reactions in real time are so impressive. … usually think any talk of one’s ‘legacy’ is bloviating bs (marcus aurelius had that issue dialed), but with these guys it actually means something.
If, as according to his fireman buddy, his ribs were being broken during CPR then it’s understandable that he’s moving gingerly. More than one broken rib in the upper part of his rib cage means he’ll be moving gingerly for a while. Glad that he’s doing well, and that Pipe has so many capable first-responders and first-aid trained folks.
I can see why helmets have taken off in popularity.
https://youtu.be/UrJt-CypwiM?si=uMjfC__pIgWmtsNo
Proper depth of each chest compression invariably leads to cracking ribs. I have had to do CPR twice on people, and the sound of ribs cracking happened both times. It’s unnerving to hear the sound of hurt while you’re trying to help
Yeah, that would be unnerving!
Hard to understand why anyone is thanking the same god who if he/she exists must have let the accident happen in the first place.
he / she was having a shit
haha or not giving a shit
Hoping the wheelchair is just for hospital insurance purposes/standard practice
They don’t let you walk of hospitals in the US no matter how small the procedure is. Definitely an insurance/CYA thing.
Eli Olsen was the first to Makai and had him on his board and was already doing life saving compressions and breaths on the way in. surprised they did not mention him.
Why you feel the need to point out what they didn’t say? Eli Olson has been thanked repeatedly by many people including Liam.
Do you by any chance know why Makai McNamara doesn’t wear a helmet out there? Seem strange with his brother being such an early adopter of the headgear.
If it’s your time to get hurt, it will happen no matter what. Even if your wearing full body armor, when it’s your time it’s your time.
Helmet might save yer egg being cracked but spinal injury is another matter.
Complete fatalistic rubbish –
So if it’s “your time” and you already looked both ways and saw no vehicles, you will still get run over by a bus?
Hope it’s not a 21 window, that would be a waste…
That’s his dad that was an early user of the Gath helmet, not his brother. There are a ton of Pipe guys that don’t wear helmets though. My guess is its a personal preference and has to do with comfort but peeps might want to start re-thinking that approach.
Definitely not a criticism but just an observation. I’m not padding that shit in full knights armor so who am I to say.
They’re explicitly thanked in the carousel of photos.
All the best for his health, and hopefully he’ll make a full recovery from such a heavy incident.
But at the pointy end of the stick…
Is he an amateur, semi-pro or pro surfer ?
Does he have the appropriate medical insurance for his tax declaration ?
As a born and bred Hawaiian resident is he exempt from needing it ?
Or will there be an internet donation fund for him, that the ‘keen amateur/semi-pro Brazilians’ and various other seriously wounded but financially disorganised travelers seem to rely on these days ?
It seems they mostly never have any insurance and rely on crowd funding. Let’s hope he does have some insurance.
Hawaii has essentially universal health insurance for its residents. As close to a European experience as you can get in the US. It’s fucken great
OH NOES!!! TEH SOCIALISMZ!!!!
Musk would cancel that as soon as he could if he could reach into state health budgets… which he can indirectly via cancelling other stuff. The shitcunt.
Just Sayin’
He has a seemingly successful fishing business. And his family has done well with north shore surf shop. I’m sure he has insurance