Before he died, Family Court Judge Kenneth Enright was floating face down off Manele Bay on Lana'i on a Sunday afternoon after he got flipped in the water near shore and struck his head on the bottom.

As much as he tried, he couldn't move. He knew there weren't many people on the beach. He knew there was no lifeguard.

He knew he would drown.

"Wow, I'm going to see God this afternoon," he thought.

But his wife, Amy, who had gone out alone for a swim, turned around, noticed him, pulled him ashore and screamed.

Enright had stopped breathing and his heart had stopped, which he described as being "technically dead." As chance would have it, among fewer than 30 people scattered on the beach were two doctors and two nurses.

They revived him.

Enright had suffered a C-3 spinal-cord injury. The early prognosis was that he could end up a quadriplegic.

But with the support of family, friends and others, Enright went from lying in a hospital bed at The Queen's Medical Center — paralyzed and unable to talk with a breathing tube down his throat — to the point where he could return part time to the bench this year.

As he sat in his second-floor chambers at the state courthouse on Punchbowl Street, the 58-year-old judge recalled that afternoon of Feb. 20 last year and his thoughts about his pending death.

"Why I was so happy about going to see God, I'm not sure, with my record, but I was," he said with a smile.

CALLED A MODEL JUDGE

Enright's accident was a blow to the legal community, but his recovery and his spirit have inspired those around him who had feared the worst. "He was truly devastated," recalled Chief Justice Ronald Moon, who visited Enright from the early days at the hospital and who calls him a "model judge."

Moon said if anyone could pull through, it would have been Enright.

"He's such a tough guy," Moon said. "Just watching him progress was just really inspiring."

Frances Wong, administrative judge for O'ahu's Family Court, said Enright, who works three days a week, may soon be working five. "He's got a very strong faith and a very strong mind," she said.

But Enright, characteristically and without a trace of self-pity, credited his family and supporters as well as a higher power.

'TECHNICALLY, VERY DEAD'

He and his wife had gone to Lana'i for a holiday, which they had done in the past.

An avid runner, swimmer and body and board surfer, Enright went for an hour-and-a-half swim. Because of the steep shore, he was waiting for a lull in the waves when somehow his head crashed into the bottom. He still doesn't understand how it happened.

He didn't think his wife would see him because she had already left for her own swim, but when she looked back and saw him floating face down, she went to help.

He said the next image he remembers is seeing his wife's face on the beach.

The doctors, he said, told him he had drowned.

He was, he said, "technically, very dead."

Enright was flown by helicopter to Honolulu and taken to Queen's.

He spent 10 days at Queen's and another seven weeks at the Rehab Hospital of the Pacific in Liliha.

"Amy was just beyond fabulous," he said. "She kept the whole thing together."

At his Kailua home, he could not sit up. He could not separate his legs. The man who ran 29 marathons could not get out of a wheelchair.

He also thanks his rescuers, the staff at Queen's and the Rehab Hospital, his son and two daughters, his brothers Scott, Gary and Gregg and others, including physical therapist Mike McCarthy, who visited each morning for two months.

The therapist instructed his brother Scott, who would work out with Enright as much as six hours each day.

In January, he recovered enough to return to the bench part time. Wong said experienced Family Court judges in the early weeks shadowed Enright to ensure that he could do his job, which he could.

Today, Enright walks with a crutch. He's swimming. He rides an exercise bike and lifts weights. He can spend two 15-minute sessions on his treadmill in his office, walking at a half mile an hour.

MAKING PROGRESS

His brain sometimes gets back wrong messages from his body because of the injury.

He said he sometimes feels like his legs are frozen.

"I feel like I'm wearing a suit of ice," he said. "I'm still making rather good progress, but slow progress."

He doesn't look for long-term goals. He might be able to walk the marathon someday or return to body surfing whenever he wants, regardless of the size of the waves.

"I think dying brought home to me that long-term plans are nice and they're necessary, but it's today," he said. "I want to do the best I can today."

He said he feels best when he is on the bench, and can forget about the aches and the coldness.

And he said he now feels more energy for his job, refreshed after taking a "vacation" from working 25 years at the Attorney General's Office and Family Court.

"It's very hard not to enjoy myself," he said. "I've never had life better."

He said the biggest effect of his ordeal is that the support he received affirmed his belief about the goodness in people.

"This experience showed me beyond anything I could have imagined just how wonderful people are," he said.

When he meets people, he presumes they are good people. "It doesn't have to be established, it has to be rebutted," he said. "It just makes life so much enjoyable."

He said no one can explain why he's still alive, "except people who believe in miracles."

Do you?

"Absolutely," he said.

"What happened was God didn't want to see me that day. That's as good an explanation as anybody is going to give you."

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.