An Oklahoma couple who went missing while scuba diving have spoken out and revealed the horrific injuries they suffered while lost at sea.
Kim and Nathan Maker spent 38 hours floating in the treacherous waters of the Texas coast after a storm separated them from their diving group.
The couple held on to each other for dear life as the U.S. Coast Guard searched over 1,600 miles for them.
They suffered jellyfish stings and sunburns while treading the shark infested waters of the Gulf of Mexico and family said Nathan was nearly in a diabetic coma when he was rescued, reported KOCO.
‘Because our body temperatures were dropping, we needed to keep swimming or we probably would have frozen to death,’ Kim told Good Morning America.
Kim (left) and Nathan (right) Maker were rescued after 38 hours floating in the treacherous waters of the Texas coast
They suffered jellyfish stings and sunburns while treading the shark infested waters of the Gulf of Mexico and family said Nathan was nearly in a diabetic coma
‘He [Nathan] is absolutely the reason that we are alive, just keeping our spirits up because it would have been really easy to give up.’
The couple got separated from their group after helping another woman who had lost her grip on the down line – a rope that helps divers get to calmer waters.
As the woman grabbed on to the rope, Kim got knocked off and storm quickly rolled in sweeping away the couple.
‘The boat was getting smaller and smaller and smaller until its completely out of sight,’ Nathan said.
‘Kim and I just kind of took inventory of what we had on us and we tethered ourselves together.’
When the storm came in and other divers made it back on the boat, they immediately notice the Makers were missing and began searching for them.
The group enlisted the help of the Coast Guard who were just eight hours away from calling of the search when they found the Makers.
Satellite footage captured the moment rescuers spotted the couple from the plane in the murky waters early Friday morning and sent a boat to them
The couple got separated from their group after helping another woman who had lost her grip on the down line
After the couple was released from the hospital, they went to their favorite Houston deli, Kenny & Ziggy’s
Satellite footage captured the moment rescuers spotted the couple from the plane in the murky waters early Friday morning and sent a boat to them.
‘When that plane, it turned its nose towards us, Kim hits SOS on her light and it saw us,’ Nathan said.
‘Just out of the corner of our eyes this speedboat comes just streaming in and all of a sudden I can hear the voices of the coastguard guys,’ said Kim.
‘This sounds cheesy but I really believe we saw the hand of God that day and it was the hand of the coastguard,’ Nathan said.
‘I think the biggest thing was just believe in each other.’
Family and friends are billing the rescue as nothing short of a miracle as storm swells threatened to swallow the pair whole.
‘We thank everybody for their concerns and their prayers. This miracle was performed by the Coast Guard at God’s direction,’ Charles Owen, Nathan’s uncle, told KFOR.
Kim and Nathan are experienced divers who tethered on to each other and kept each other’s spirits up as they waited for help
When the storm came in and other divers made it back on the boat (pictured), they immediately notice the Makers were missing and began searching for them
The Makers are incredibly grateful for the U.S. Coast Guard and said they do plan on diving again in the future
Lisa Shearin, a fellow diver on the fateful trip said: ‘People don’t survive that and not have a story to tell. They have a greater purpose, obviously, God truly did spare them.’
After the couple was released from the hospital, they went to their favorite Houston deli, Kenny & Ziggy’s.
The restaurant shared a photo to Facebook with one of the owners and the couple as they enjoyed their meal.
‘While they were floating in the water, with no protection, they said all they could think about was how they wanted to eat at Kenny & Ziggy’s,’ the deli said.
‘They were released from the hospital this morning and came straight to the deli to eat and Ziggy got to meet them. It’s a true miracle that they were not injured in any way or attacked or eaten by sharks.’
