San Diego lifeguard Todd Rice is in need of a little help after a boat ran over him while surfing in Nicaragua. Photo: GoFundMe
A San Diego lifeguard needs help after a freak accident that occurred while he was on a surf trip in Nicaragua.
Todd Rice, who has been lifeguarding for 23 years, was surfing at an undisclosed location in the Central American country when a passing panga, or small boat, drove over his leg as it came too close to the lineup. It was immediately obvious that his injuries were severe, but Rice put his years of rescue training to good use.
“We’re first on scene so we apply tourniquets all the time,” he told San Diego’s FOX5, “but my first instinct was just I have to live, and it started from when I was almost unconscious underwater from being hit by the boat.”
Bleeding profusely, Rice managed to use his surfboard leash as a makeshift tourniquet, which slowed the bleeding to help him survive until aid arrived. The wait, though, was an agonizing one, both physically and mentally. Far from home, lying on the sand bleeding, Rice considered that he might not survive his ordeal.
“I came to terms that for one, at that point, I might die,” he remembered. “So I said my goodbyes to the gentleman that was holding my head and told him to say certain things to my family. And then secondary, if I live, I’ve already come to terms that I might lose my leg.”
Rice was under the care of doctors in Nicaragua, but has since been moved to a Florida hospital, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help him.
“The doctors in Nicaragua were much more optimistic than those in Florida regarding his leg, and whether or not he gets to keep it,” reads an update post. “The doctor said they normally would have removed it in any other place south of the border. They did their best in Nicaragua. They do not have the best technologies and they missed a fracture to his femur and his heal. He has a very top-notch team working on him in Florida. They went in to remove the dead tissue and reset most of the work. They expect it will be 10 days to two weeks before he could be moved at all, during that time they will evaluate all of his options. Keeping a leg after this injury may not be the best option depending on how functional it may be. Those are decisions that won’t be made for a while. He now has the best care one can have.”
Rice expressed gratitude to his fellow lifeguards and the greater community in San Diego: “Right now I’m fighting for my leg, to keep it. It’s not just me, it’s the whole tribe, it’s a whole group. I feel like it’s the whole city that’s helping me out in this process.”
