Bring Him Home: Southern Utah Father Unable to Move Arms and Legs After Body Surfing Accident

Two brothers from St. George are asking the community for help after an accident resulted in one of the siblings being left with serious injuries while in Southern California. 

Matt Harris, 49, a former lawyer and practicing nurse, was celebrating his birthday on June 25 at Laguna Beach, California, when he suffered a serious injury from a body surfing accident. 

Matt’s brother David Harris, a former Utah Tech University professor, created a press release to spread awareness of the accident with hopes of raising money to bring Matt home to Utah. 

David said, “He was body surfing in the waves with his 14-year-old boy, and his 11-year-old girl was just on the beach watching. The two of them, he and his boy, went over a wave, and Matt must have hit the ground and was knocked out. He couldn’t move his arms or legs, began to drown, and was essentially just laying there lifeless in the water.”  

Matt’s son then called for help after seeing his father’s unresponsive body on the water, resulting in emergency action from the lifeguards and bystanders on the beach. 

David said, “Some other people who were in the ocean helped my brother get onto the beach, the lifeguards took over, began to perform CPR on him, and also defibrillate his heart so that he could get his pulse back.” 

The lifeguards were successful in restarting Matt’s pulse, and medical personnel were able to transport him to a local hospital in Southern California before more emergency action had to be taken. 

David said, “They transported him to the hospital in Mission Viejo, and his heart stopped again while he was in the emergency department. They started his heart up a second time and was then put into the ICU in a medically induced coma. They chilled his body down so that they could try to reduce brain damage as much as possible.” 

The coma continued for three days before Matt was finally brought out of sedation. Medical staff warmed his body back to normal temperatures, with Matt’s family hoping for a positive development. Fortunately, Matt was still himself despite being unable to move his arms and legs. 

David said, “We were worried that he would have brain damage, that there would be significant medical issues or nervous system problems, and awesomely, his personality is intact, his brain is intact, everything is great in terms of his brain. Unfortunately, there is a neurological problem. He sustained an injury to the spinal cord in his neck, and he’s not able to move his arms or legs.” 

Now to the issue at hand. The reason why the Harris Family decided to create a GoFundMe page for Matt is because they want to transport him to a hospital closer to home, but his insurance refused to pay the $20,000 it would take to bring him to Utah. 

So that’s where the community comes in. Matt has made it clear that he’s going to recover from this traumatic injury and continue his career in the medical field, even if it takes years to do so. In order to do that, he needs to start the rehabilitation process, and his family wants him to be in Utah to best do so.  

David said, “Obviously, it’s going to be a huge obstacle, but we feel like he is going to do everything he can to beat the odds, and for the kind of man he is, he’s the kind of man that likes to do things that would be claimed by other people to be impossible. So, if he could still become a nurse practitioner, even without being able to move his arms or legs, that’s what he’s going to do.” 

David called his brother an inspiration as he pushes through despite the unfortunate circumstances, which is something David isn’t sure he would be able to do himself. 

If you would like to help this Southern Utah family during their time of need, then you can donate to their GoFundMe page to bring Matt home to Utah. 

Thank you to David Harris for speaking with me about his brother’s condition.