First off I wanted to thank you for all of your prayers, support and well wishes. They are much needed. Life has forever changed for our family in an instant.

As you know my wife, son and my son’s friend were out here in Maui for a wedding. I was unable to go because my younger boys started school this last Monday. Brayden, my son just graduated high school, and was waiting to be shipped off to Army boot camp. His MOS would have been “drone specialist.” He is to turn 18 next week. His friend just graduated as well from same high school. During their stay, the boys went down to the hotel pool to hang out with some friends they had met. Brayden and his friend started talking about football and right after the conversation, Brayden decided to dive into the pool head first. He misjudged the depth of the pool. He mentioned something about the lighting being low and it was dark outside. As Brayden dove, he struck the bottom of the pool with his head. His friend saw him motionless in the pool, facedown. At first, his friend thought Brayden was messing around. But as time passed he got nervous because he still wasn’t moving so he jumped in the pool. Brayden was unable to use any of his limbs but was fortunately conscious. He relayed to his friend that something was wrong. His friend was miraculously able to pull my 6-01 boy out the pool by himself and summons 911.

While at the trauma center, X-rays and MRI’s revealed serious damage to his c5 and c6 with damage to his spinal cord. He has since had two very successful surgeries to stabilize the neck. His c5 was completely pulverized so it was removed and encaged. A spinal fusion was performed to hold it all intact.

As we speak my son is partially paralyzed in his arms and has full paralysis of his legs. He is still on a ventilator but we are hoping and praying that he will be off of that today but that is not confirmed.

He will have to be airlifted by air ambulance back to Southern California. This may take some time for the logistics. And we are not sure if he will go to Oahu first to start physical therapy or be directed straight to the states. All those conversations are going on behind the scene by hospital and insurance company.

Some positive takeaways are that my son does not have any brain damage. His speech is fine and he is a fighter like his mama. With much needed prayer from all of our prayer warriors and a lot of hard work we will get my son back to functioning on his own one day. What that looks like, we don’t know but we are in it together.

Needless to say, I will be out here for a while and will keep you posted on the progress we’re making on getting him back to the states.

Thanks again for all of your support with your prayers and your thoughts being with my son. And thank you for your support for me my family.

Holding faith,

Prentice & Serrano Family