Josh Collette, 42, has broken his silence from his hospital bed two weeks after a rescue attempt left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
The California father of five spoke out about the August afternoon at Riviera Beach in San Clemente that changed his life, describing the instant he knew his body had failed him. Collette, an avid swimmer and surfer, had spotted two children struggling in a rip current and dove headfirst into the water to reach them.
“I could feel myself dying. I couldn’t breathe, and they pulled me up out of the water. I dove headfirst, and that’s my fault. I should not have,” he said.
Both children made it out of the water safely. Collette did not. He struck a sand wall formed by the fast-moving current and was pulled from the ocean unresponsive. His wife, Rose, immediately began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as they waited for emergency help.
“We knew right away,” she said LA. “He looked at me dead in the eyes and said, ‘I broke my neck. I cannot breathe.’ “
At Providence Mission Hospital, doctors delivered the full diagnosis: two broken vertebrae and severe spinal cord damage. Collette has no feeling below his shoulders and remains in the intensive care unit, unable to speak. His wife has learned to read his lips to communicate.
Before treatment began, Collette asked the medical team for unvarnished honesty about what he faced.
Despite the prognosis, his outlook has stunned those around him. “My spirit, my heart is so full. I’ve never felt so much love,” he shared.
Rose Collette has stayed by his side throughout the hospitalization, and her admiration for her husband has only deepened. “He’s always loved to save the day. I just feel like he’s our family hero,” she said.
The Collettes’ five children have been cared for by a network of neighbors and friends who have stepped in with meals, childcare, and even dog-walking since the incident. The local response has extended beyond San Clemente: a GoFundMe campaign to cover medical bills, therapy costs, and family support has raised nearly $400,000. The funds are also earmarked for a transfer to a specialized rehabilitation facility in Colorado that treats spinal injuries like his.
The mid-August rescue attempt unfolded during what had been a routine family outing to the Orange County coastline. Rip currents, which form as narrow channels of water rushing seaward through breaking waves, account for hundreds of drownings and thousands of rescues annually along American coastlines. Collette’s experience illustrates the hidden danger beneath the surface: the same current that endangered the children created an underwater sand wall that transformed his dive into a catastrophic impact.
Collette’s recovery path remains complex, with the Colorado transfer representing the next phase of treatment.