A San Diego junior lifeguard intern who suffered a serious spinal injury while diving into Mission Bay last month during a relay race remains hospitalized in intensive care, his family said this week.
Finn Renard, 17, was injured July 31 while participating as teams raced on the last day of his lifeguard internship.
Finn was the last, or anchor, swimmer, and his team was behind when he ran and dove into the water. He struck his head on the ocean floor, knocking himself briefly unconscious and causing a “severe spinal cord injury,” according to a GoFundMe campaign set up to support his care.
“It was a completely freaky deal,” his father, Alan Renard, said Thursday. “He broke his neck. It is unbelievable.”
His fellow lifeguards rushed to help him, providing critical care and ensuring he was quickly transported to a hospital, where he underwent emergency spinal surgery.
Finn Renard plays with a football in Mission Bay last summer. (Courtesy of Renard family)
The first week after his injury, he was talking and joking with visitors, many of whom were friends and coworkers from the lifeguard program. But he had trouble “clearing his lungs” because of his spinal injury and developed pneumonia and a staph infection, his father said.
On Tuesday, his mother, Courtney Renard, shared on the GoFundMe site that Finn had been put on an advanced life-support machine that pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body. Renard said the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machine was “letting his lungs heal after fighting for over 2 weeks to breathe.”
In an update posted Thursday, she wrote that Finn was stable, and that there were “no improvements other than he’s not getting worse.”
“We’ve been told this is gonna be a long road, but it’s not the end of the road,” she wrote, adding, “When there is news about his beginning to recover from life-support, we’ll post.”
The Renard family had lived in San Diego until about five years ago when they moved to an area near Fort Worth, Texas. With family and friends still in the area, they regularly visit for vacations. Finn had enrolled in the Junior Lifeguard camp for two summers before applying for a paid internship this year, his father said.
The popular city-run program has been around for more than 70 years and is designed to teach children and teens beach safety, first aid and CPR, and water rescue techniques. Around 1,500 junior lifeguards, ranging in age from 7 to 17, participated in the program’s two sessions this summer.
Interns are older youths who have completed their sophomore or junior years of high school. Before they are hired for the internship, which lasts nine weeks, they must run a mile in less than eight minutes and 30 seconds, complete a 500-yard swim in less than 10 minutes and go through a job interview.
Finn, who has an older brother and sister, was supposed to have started his senior year of high school this month. He is interested in becoming a pilot and took flying lessons this summer at Gillespie Field, said his father, a former Navy pilot.
Down the line, the family hopes that Finn can be transferred to Craig Hospital, a spinal cord rehabilitation center in Colorado.
As of Friday afternoon, people had pledged more than $101,000 to the GoFundMe account.
“Our San Diego Junior Lifeguard interns and staff are part of our Fire-Rescue family. Finn’s injury has deeply affected our team, and we have remained in close contact with his parents,” the fire department said in a statement. “Our hearts are with Finn and his loved ones, and we will continue to offer our support throughout his recovery.”
Finn’s father said he had a steady stream of visitors after his surgery, a reflection of the strong bond forged among those in the lifeguard service. Lifeguard Chief James Gartland and other lifeguard staffers, including some who helped rescue Finn from the water, were among the visitors.
“The lifeguard community is powerful. It is really strong, and the bonds they create and the friendships they create is just overwhelming,” Alan Renard said, adding: “These kids and adults have been traumatized by this whole thing just like we have.”