A surfing accident left a local San Diego teacher paralyzed in Europe. But now, the family is trying to find way to get him back to San Diego, NBC 7’s Kelvin Henry reports.
The Keegan family spent what was supposed to be a joyous trip in the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal in a hospital after a surfing accident left a San Diego, California man paralyzed.
James Keegan was surfing with his 10-year-old son when he went underwater and became unresponsive.
“The phone rang and it was the police in the Azores saying my husband had been in an accident and they have my 10-year-old son,” James Keegan's wife Erin said.
Erin Keegan, said the accident is puzzling because James Keegan has decades of surfing experience.
She said her son explained what he saw.
“He caught a wave in front of my son and when my son finished his wave he saw his father face down in the water. He flipped him over and saw that he was unresponsive, so my son dragged him to the beach and screamed for help.
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"We don’t know. We think he must’ve hit the sand. There was no rocks where they were swimming but we don’t know because everything happened underwater,” Erin Keegan said.
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The Keegan family put their focus on helping James Keegan make a successful recovery but received devastating news.
“My husband was asleep for about 24 hours and when he woke up they confirmed that he was paralyzed,” Erin Keegan said.
James Keegan is receiving good medical care in the Azores but he wants to return to the United States to be closer to family during his recovery, his wife said.
The journey has been complicated by not receiving assistance from their health insurance provider, according to Erin.
“I began calling United Healthcare to try to find out what sort of coverage there is for this and people said if they weren’t able to provide the care that he needs in the Azores then they would transport him back, Erin Keegan said. "And since then my in-laws and I have called almost every single day and we just get told 'Yes, we know about your husband's situation' and 'Yes, we have a file on it and someone will call you' but nobody has called and the accident happened on July 23."
The medical staff in the Azores joined in to help advocate for James, according to Erin Keegan. One hospital staff who spoke fluent English was on the phone with the insurance company for hours.
"They kept transferring her from department to department, then said they couldn’t accept the authorization because she couldn’t give her a Tax ID number. Tax ID numbers are for doctors in America they don’t apply to doctors in the European Union,” Erin said.
Erin Keegan and their children returned to San Diego. While she helps the children transition into a normal routine back at home, her in-laws traveled to be by James Keegan's side.
