Man still unable to move his hands

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Paul Becconsall lay in an intensive-care hospital bed at The Queen's Medical Center yesterday with a cervical collar around his neck — unable to move his hands and fingers — and realized that he really does know better.

Paul Becconsall has regained feeling and movement in his feet and legs since a diving accident Friday at Kailua Beach. With him at The Queen's Medical Center yesterday were his wife, Teresa, and his son-in-law Matt Ganote. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

"He ran at full speed, thinking he was going to do a swan dive ... then we thought he was dead," said Becconsall's son-in-law, Matt Ganote of Hawai'i Kai.

One second of flight into the ocean left Becconsall, 52, paralyzed from the chest down for eight hours. He regained feeling and movement in his feet and legs around midnight Friday. Saturday afternoon he underwent surgery to repair a ruptured disc that put pressure on his spinal cord — and to replace a shattered C-4 vertebrae with one from a cadaver.

Yesterday Becconsall could move his feet and lift his knees but still had no sensation in his hands and fingers.

Becconsall's injuries underscore the danger of diving into the ocean as thousands of people do each year, especially when their guard is down while vacationing in Hawai'i.

"If you dive in head first you always want to make sure you know what's on the bottom," Becconsall said. "I didn't."

Becconsall and his wife, Teresa, yesterday were supposed to fly back home to Boulder Creek, near Santa Cruz. Instead, they spent their Sunday in the Queen's neurosciences intensive-care unit with Teresa periodically reaching over to rub Becconsall's nose or to scratch his scalp.

Today Becconsall will try to walk for the first time in three days. He'll spend the next week recovering at Queen's and will then transfer to the Rehab Hospital of the Pacific.

Becconsall hopes to eventually regain the use of his fingers and his hands. But doctors told him they cannot be certain how much trauma his spinal cord suffered and how much movement he'll regain.

All Becconsall knows for certain is that he's lucky.

He had spent the past week on vacation visiting his daughter, Andrea Ganote, son-in-law and granddaughter. He grew to enjoy bodysurfing at Sandy Beach and had gotten used to the unforgiving break that can slam swimmers to the bottom.

But on Friday the whole family decided to take Becconsall's 22-month-old granddaughter, Kyla, to the much more gentle waters of Kailua.

"Me and my daughter watched him dive in and I told my daughter, 'That water's way too shallow,' " Teresa said. "We stood there and watched and he didn't come up."

Becconsall had dived into a 3-foot wave that pushed him face down into the sand. As his neck snapped, Becconsall heard a dull crunch.

"It sounded like ka-thunk," Becconsall said.

The force of suddenly stopping head first in the sand left scabs on the top of Becconsall's head, broke two of his bottom teeth and cracked a molar.

As he lay face down in the water, unable to move, Becconsall began sucking in salt water, with thoughts of death flashing through his mind.

"I thought, 'This is it,' " Becconsall said. "It was very scary."

Instead, people from all over the beach flew to Becconsall, including a nurse, a doctor and lifeguards Kimo Gaspar and Peter Erwin. Son-in-law Matt — who has emergency response training — held Becconsall's neck immobile.

Becconsall is grateful to all of the strangers who helped him at the beach, and to the nurses, doctors and surgeons who have worked on him at Queen's. One of his nurses, Chris Robbins, even scratched his face throughout much of her midnight shift.

Becconsall works at San Mateo Medical Center as the director of facilities and said, "you always feel like your hospital is the best. But these nurses and this hospital is tops."

He has also learned a few other things.

"He does know not to dive in," Teresa said. "He certainly knows better now."

Reach Dan Nakaso at 525-8085 or dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.