A week after a bad wipeout at Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore, surfer Makai McNamara was released from Queen’s Medical Center, according to social media posts from his father Liam McNamara and his younger brother Landon McNamara.
On Feb. 23, Makai McNamara was pulled from the ocean unresponsive, in a dramatic rescue. With the help of other surfers, lifeguards responded through a rising swell, secured the 29-year-old surfer onto a rescue board and paddled him to shore. Once onshore, Honolulu Ocean Safety staff performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and placed an automated external defibrillator onto McNamara. After several rounds of CPR, McNamara regained a pulse. Honolulu Emergency Medical Services began administering advanced life-support, and then transported him to a hospital.
Afterwards, Landon McNamara, a musician and the most recent winner of the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational contest, posted on social media that Makai was kept in a medically induced coma for 72 hours at the intensive care unit at Queen’s.
But on Sunday, he shared that Makai McNamara was “100% healthy.” He also thanked everyone who helped his big brother. “Grateful to all who saved him from the ocean, to the beach, to the hospital, all the positivity & prayers.”
Pipe legend Liam McNamara shared a video of Makai McNamara coming out of the hospital in a wheelchair.
“Makai McNamara is home!!” wrote his father in an Instagram post. “Thanks God and everyone who saved his life!”
Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.
