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A couple from Oklahoma have shared their miraculous survival story after they became separated from their scuba diving group during stormy weather and were lost at sea treading water for 36 hours.
Experienced divers Nathan and Kim Maker, from Edmond, Oklahoma, were scuba diving off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday morning when the swell from stormy weather caused them to lose the rest of their group.
“There was a storm moving in, and the divers had all surfaced and was going to prepare to get back on the boat,” Nathan’s uncle, Charles Owen, toldKFOR.
“As the 16 got in, in the meantime, the swell comes in and engulfed all of them.”
The rough water had knocked one diver off a guideline, often used for navigation or returning to safety while diving, and Nathan dived down to try to help, ABC News New York reported.
Yet, in the melee of the intense situation, both Nathan and Kim were swept away from the rest of the group and the boat.
“I was swimming with everything. I had to get her back to the line, and we got her to the line and I, I just was within arm’s reach. I just couldn’t get it,” Nathan recalled to the outlet.
Realizing they were nowhere near to the boat, the couple swam and tread water to stay alive.
“Because our body temperatures were dropping, we needed to keep swimming, or we probably would have frozen to death,” Kim told ABC.
She said Nathan made the swimming into a game, counting to three before they would “kick for a little while.”
After a while, Nathan, who has diabetes, became dangerously close to slipping into a coma, the couple said.
A staggering 36 hours had passed and the extremity of swimming for almost two days straight was catching with them.
Then came a glimmer of hope.
The US Coast Guard had deployed a helicopter, other aircraft and a response boat to try and find the divers when they were reported missing.
After covering around 1,656 square miles and searching for 36 hours, the search was close to being called off.
Then, on Thursday, one of the aircrafts spotted a flashing light in the water and directed the boat to the location.
“This plane happened to be in the air last night making its last run outside the grid and Nathan and Kim had their diving flashlights, and they were doing the SOS to point at the plane’s bottom,” Owen told KFOR.
The Coast Guard found the couple 15 miles from Matagorda and pulled them to safety.
Kim had suffered an infection, and both were very dehydrated and suffering multiple jellyfish stings but were otherwise safe and back on dry land.
