Matt Mina, the teen who survived a sand cave-in Wednesday at a California beach, had a couple of close calls while growing up in Hawaii, his mother said.
Mina, 17, was born in Wahiawa and lived seven years on Hawaii island before moving with his family to the mainland at age 10, his mother, Melissa Mina, told the Star-Advertiser Thursday.
When Matt was born via emergency Caesarean section at Wahiawa General Hospital, his mother recalled asking, "‘Why isn’t he crying?’
"I saw a limp, gray baby. They had to jump-start him, suctioning out his lungs."
Soon after the family moved to the Hawaiian Acres subdivision in Puna when Matt was 3, he went on a hike with his parents and sister, Megan, at Green Sand Beach near South Point.
At one point Matt began to go over a cliff, and his father, Manuel, quickly grabbed him.
"My husband snatched him out of midair," she told the Star-Advertiser from their Free Union, Va., home. "Both his feet were literally off the ground. I was so in shock when I was watching it, I couldn’t even scream."
Matt attended Mountain View and E.B. DeSilva elementary schools. The Minas moved to Virginia seven years ago when Manuel Mina got a postal job there.
On Wednesday, Matt Mina was digging a trench when the walls caved in, burying him alive until bystanders and rescue personnel dug him out.
He told his mother he and his cousins had dug down 7 feet and wanted to tunnel and make the holes meet, she said.
The deputy of operations at Newport Beach told his mother the boys dug a hole 21 by 16 feet — and 8 feet deep.
When she asked her son whether he prayed while buried beneath the sand, he replied, "‘I didn’t have time. I wiggled my head from side to side.’ He yelled for help, which his cousin heard, and it helped pinpoint where he was."
"He grew up digging in the sand," Melissa Mina said. "He used to like to create things in the sand, and he liked to dig in the sand, but I never let him dig really deep.
"I’ve told him time and time again — he’s hard-headed — I’ve told him, ‘You’ve dug yourself into this hole.’ … I don’t think I’ll be able to say that to him again."
