I went swimming at a beach in California and have been paralyzed by my mistake ever since

A high school football star was left paralyzed after diving into shallow water, fracturing one of his vertebrae.

Carson Pforsich of Santa Rosa, California, met friends in Bodega Bay for a swim, as he has done countless times before.

The late September swell was brisk but refreshing, and the tide was out, giving the illusion of greater depth.

Mr Pforsich, then 17 years old, dove into the deceptively shallow swell and hit the seabed, fracturing his vertebrae and throwing his spine off balance.

He lay face down in the water, unable to move, until friends and a passing paramedic swooped in to save his life.

He told it KTVU from his hospital bed at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital: “As soon as I hit my head on the floor, I was paralyzed, I couldn’t move.”

The off-duty firefighter happened to be walking by when he saw the incident, which took place in 2017, and ran over to carry the motionless boy to the beach while he tried to stabilize his neck and prevent further injury.

The firefighter summoned the Sonoma County Sheriff’s helicopter, which he directed to the exact location.

Mr. Pforsich was transported to hospital, where he underwent a three-hour operation to realign his spine.

Carson Pforsich is pictured with his girlfriend Desi D’Ancona in 2024. In 2017, Carson broke his neck while diving into water that turned out to be too shallow

The accident left Mr. Pforsich paralyzed from the mid-chest down, due to a fractured vertebra and misaligned spine.

A day after his surgery, Mr. Pforsich regained some movement in his arms and felt nurses wiping his back.

His father Andy, a longtime Sonoma County firefighter, said at the time, “He’s a strong kid. It’s the height of football season, so he’s in the best physical condition a kid can be. I’m so optimistic.’

A fractured vertebra and misaligned spine often press on surrounding nerves and can cause numbness and weakness, if not total paralysis, in areas below the injury.

He spent about a month in intensive rehabilitation, learning to lift himself into his wheelchair and keep his muscles from atrophying.

His occupational therapist said, “Carson has faced his injury and the reality of it with more courage than I have seen in most adult men who come through our department.

“He was eager to learn new ways to do things every day and could even laugh and make us laugh too.”

His football coach called Carson the heart of their team. For his fellow players, seeing their friend and leader so seriously injured shook their confidence, even after a great win the week before.

Coach James Foster said, “All the kids are rallying around him, so this is obviously tough.

Carson was a high school football star who would never get the chance to play the game again

“But he’s the kind of person who would want us to persevere and keep working hard.”

Mr. Pforsich is now 24 and uses a wheelchair to get around. He is currently studying to become a certified personal accountant.

He thanks his Sonoma community for organizing a fundraiser to help defray the costs of his care, wheelchair and equipping his home to be accessible to the disabled by organizing a fundraiser to do the same for other people with spinal cord injuries.

He said: ‘It’s not just to raise awareness of their stories, but to really raise awareness of what life is like with a spinal cord injury in general and how difficult it can be.’