TORONTO, ON—Colin McCartney, the executive director of UrbanPromise Toronto, sustained a serious physical injury in November, while vacationing with his family in Hawaii.

McCartney, 40, was reportedly riding a bodyboard along the beach when a large wave knocked him off the board and dragged him underwater, where he struck his back on the ocean floor.

The father of two school-age children was pulled unconscious from the water and airlifted to a hospital in Maui, where he remained as of early December, undergoing rehabilitation.

UrbanPromise spokespeople expressed concern initially about the possibility McCartney would be paralysed. But according to e-mail updates from the organization, the executive director has been diagnosed with central spinal syndrome, meaning, “he is not paralysed but needs therapy,” and may require surgery.

McCartney and his family were in the first week of a three-month sabbatical that was to have taken them to Australia, when the accident occurred.

The sabbatical came on the heels of several months of tragedy for the ministry. In October, an eight-year-old boy died after spending two months in a coma following a near drowning incident while on a trip to the lake with an UrbanPromise day camp. In March, a ministry youth worker was shot and killed in a home invasion.

UrbanPromise is a ministry founded by Tony Campolo that works primarily in urban, government housing neighbourhoods with at-risk children, youth and their families.