Fly-in-fly-out employee Scott Race was dumped by a wave at Secret Harbour, hit a sandbank and broke his neck.
The 39-year-old additionally broken his spinal twine and his C6 and C7 vertebrae.
His associate Peta Byrne leapt into motion, fought to drag him from the water earlier than two strangers waded out to assist.
“Scott (was) floating,” Byrne stated.
“I thought ‘oh no, he must just be mucking around’.
“I pulled him up and he does a giant gasp of air and he is like ‘I can not transfer, I can not transfer'”.
Byrne said it was a scary moment and Race “thought he was going to die”.
“He’s been our protector, our supplier, our all the pieces to our household after which to see him like that it is so onerous,” Byrne said.
Race faces a long road to recovery and is set to spend up to 18 months at a rehabilitation centre.
The family is sharing Scott’s story to warn others to take extra care in the water.
“Just in a break up second your entire world can change and get turned the other way up – take a look at us that is our world,” Byrne stated.
