Grandmother Gets Swept into Ocean by Strong Waves at Destination Wedding in Mexico: ‘We All Started Praying’

Grandmother Survives Near-Drowning in Cabo Just Hours Before Family Wedding

What was supposed to be a joyful trip to Mexico for a destination wedding turned into a nightmare for a Kansas grandmother and her family.

Barb Prier traveled with her loved ones to Cabo San Lucas in June for a beachside ceremony, according to KCTV. On the morning of the wedding, June 12, she and her sister left the rest of the group at the pool and went for a walk along the shoreline.

They were careful to keep to the dry sand, away from the surf. “The waves didn’t seem very rough,” Barb recalled.

Then everything changed in an instant. “I was walking toward my sister, and all of a sudden it just broke loose,” Barb said. “A couple of the waves came in, one on top of the other.”

Both women were knocked off their feet, and Barb was dragged into the ocean. They had been hit by what is known in Mexico as a “mar de fondo” — a powerful swell of deceptively strong waves that can appear without warning, per the Cabo Sun.

The outlet explains that, in practical terms, a wave that looks harmless can suddenly rise into a “thundering wall” right at the waterline — exactly where many vacationers stand or wade. Mar de fondo season typically runs from May 15 to Nov. 30 and is driven by tropical weather systems.

Barb’s son, Tim Prier, said it was like watching his mother being tossed in a relentless cycle. “She was in the washing machine, so to speak — or the wave — just being pounded over and over and over again,” he recounted.

Three resort workers who were setting up the beach for the wedding rushed into the surf and formed a human chain to pull Barb from the water. Four guests at the wedding who had medical training began CPR on her as soon as she was back on shore.

Tim arrived at the beach while the emergency was unfolding and said it was agonizing to witness.

“I did not want that visual if this was going to be the last time that I saw my mother,” he told KCTV. “So, I just looked down and grabbed the people’s hands around me, and we all started praying.”

Barb was taken to a local hospital, where doctors discovered her lungs were filled with sand and shell fragments. She had a punctured lung, a head injury, a broken spine, broken legs and several other injuries.

After five days of being stabilized in Mexico, Barb was flown by air ambulance to the University of Kansas Hospital. There, a doctor gave the family a devastating outlook.

“He said, ‘Your mother will never walk again. She’ll never talk again. She won’t be able to feed herself. She won’t be able to dress. She’ll be in a nursing home,’ ” Barb recalled. “Well, there’s five miracles right there.”

Despite that prognosis, Barb slowly regained her strength. She eventually recovered enough to walk and talk again.

“It’s truly a miracle that she’s here with us,” Tim said. Barb added, “Through it all, God was there.”

The wedding still went forward as scheduled. The groom’s father — a doctor who had helped resuscitate Barb — decided not to tell the couple about the near-tragedy until after they returned from their honeymoon.

“They knew I wouldn’t want the wedding to stop,” Barb explained.