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SomeCruzDude

Just over two weeks after his drowning incident in Lake Tahoe, Quakes player Matheus Silva is back in training with Reno 1868 FC

Unbelievable stuff. Figured I'd put this together as a text post for better summary and background.

Here's a video message from Matheus after the practice.

"I would like to thank the supporters for the prayers, and all the support you guys have been helping me through these past two weeks. It's been amazing. I really felt that, and it helped me a lot to go through it. It feels good to be back with the team.

Today Quakes loanee Matheus Silva returned to training with the club's USL affiliate Reno 1868 FC.

Here's a short video of him handling the ball

#Summary of the July 4th incident

As most of you probably know through posts on here, early morning on July 4th he was swimming in Lake Tahoe and suffered from cold shock and quickly went under. Here's what was posted on BigSoccer and [subsequently r/SJEarthquakes summing up the whole incident](https://www.reddit.com/r/SJEarthquakes/comments/6mzch3/info_on_silva_being_saved_from_drowning/)

My father posted this to the Big Soccer forums. It has more info on Silva almost drowning.

My daughter talked to her co-worker today to get the whole story and he's a true-life hero. Here's the story. I'm going to call him "Sam".

Sam and his brother-in-law were out paddle boarding and saw Matheus and his friend swim out to the buoy's about 60 yards off shore. They were swimming back, with the his friend in the lead when Matheus started to flounder. The friend in front didn't notice and at first Sam thought he might have been joking. Then he went under and didn't come up. So Sam and his brother immediately paddled over and saw him lying on the bottom of the lake about 10 feet down. The friend by then had turned around and tried to dive but was too spent. So Sam dove down, got under him and pushed off the bottom with Matheus's 200 lb body weight over his head upwards to where the friend and brother in law were just able to grab him and pull him onto a paddle board. They immediately paddled as fast a possible to shore where there just happened to be an EMT waiting who started CPR until the paramedics arrived 5 minutes later. Matheus didn't have a heart beat until the paramedics were able to get a weak pulse rate going, for an estimated 9 minutes and probably went about 3 minutes without breathing air.

It really was a miraculous life save. So many circumstances fell the right way. If Sam and brother-in-law weren't there, it would have added many minutes to any rescue attempt. If they didn't have the buoyant paddle boards, they'd have really struggled to get him to shore. If Matheus had floundered sooner, and had gone under farther out in deeper water, they never would have been able to dive down and get a man his size and weight back up. If it hadn't been a clear water lake, they never would have seen him at the bottom and probably would still be dredging for his body. If the EMT wasn't there, then further delay, etc... Amazing story.

And "Sam" and brother-in-law are going to take the ceremonial first goal at the July 29 Rapids game. A huge ovation is in order.

#Initial reaction from teammates

Quakes players found out just before their July 4th match at Atlanta which definitely had an impact on teammates

“One moment you’re Snapchatting him then the next time you hear about him he’s in a coma,” midfielder Tommy Thompson said.

Mfeka, 23, would have joined the excursion to the Lake Tahoe had he not traveled to Atlanta with the short-handed Quakes who are missing key players because of injuries and international call-ups.

The friends chatted briefly Thursday after Silva awoke. The Brazilian midfielder told his friend he felt better.

“After a long two days of not talking, not waking up, it just made me sleep better,” Mfeka said of the progress.

Matheus was in a coma until the morning of Thursday, July 6th, and had been working his way back to health after being transferred from the ICU on the 7th. It's incredible to see he's already back up and on the field, even if the practices may not be intensive for him quite yet.

#USOC tribute from Wondolowski

In their July 10th USOC match vs LA Galaxy, Quakes captain Chris Wondolowski wore #38, Silva's number in San Jose, and ended up scoring a brace to help lead the Quakes to a win over their rivals. The brace included an uncharacteristic goal for Wondo, scored from outside the box with his left foot.

Wondo attributed the goal to Silva.

Here's a picture of Matheus with his Reno 1868 teammates and a giant get well card signed by Quakes fans at a recent match (or two, I was only there for the initial match where they had the card out)

I linked the video of him speaking after practice above, and it seems his voice is impacted by what happened when comparing it to him speaking last year. If that's all that remains from the incident, that's pretty amazing and just a testament to how everything seemingly fell into place for Matheus to be put in the best situations to pull through this ordeal.

Quakes fans have had a rough couple of years with injuries and passing in the Quakes family but the team and front office have been quietly graceful and classy throughout it all, which they should be getting some more respect and praise for.

Glad some positives are coming out of this story, I'm grateful for everyone involved that have made that the case.

Posted Jul 21, 2017, 10:15 PM UTC · edited

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