One down in Cozumel today.

[miketsp]

I’ll take a stab at translating, anything in parentheses is my commentary.

TOURIST DIES AT SEA, HE WAS ALIVE AND AFLOAT AND NO ONE HELPED!

The strange death of a tourist that was SCUBA diving happened this morning, the tourist identified as Gene Hugues 64 apparently suffered a blackout/passed out and was presumed dead and left floating at sea for more than an hour as per instructions from the port captain.

It wasn’t until elements of the marine search and rescue team arrived that they realized that the person floating had a weak pulse and immediately was taken to their installation where an ambulance from a private clinic was waiting.

The foreigner was taken by ambulance to the hospital where several hours later he was pronounced dead. Unofficially it was said that the tourist had a pacemaker that had stopped working while diving, but afterwards something apparently happened where the diver once again had a pulse.

The strange thing about this case is the amount of time the body was at sea without anyone knowing when he went missing (this is not clear to me), per instructions of the Port captain so he wouldn’t get in trouble with the law, as recorded and divulged in several mediums. (again not clear)

And so it is how the waters of Cozumel continue to claim the lives of tourists that in many cases health problems/accidents are silenced so that the natural beauties of the island, but the consequences are tragic. (seems like they are saying accidents are covered up so that tourism doesn’t suffer)

Note: The syntax, wording and overall reporting are, in my opinion, quite poor.

Pretty poor translation - just confuses the issue.

The key (and scandalous) phrase in the text is
"Lo extraño de este caso es el tiempo que pasó el cuerpo del turista en el mar sin que nadie lo subiera a su embarcación, por instrucciones de capitanía de Puerto para que no se metieran en problemas con la ley, tal y como obra en una grabación que se ha divulgado en varios medios."

You translated this as:
The strange thing about this case is the amount of time the body was at sea without anyone knowing when he went missing (this is not clear to me), per instructions of the Port captain so he wouldn’t get in trouble with the law, as recorded and divulged in several mediums. (again not clear)

A more correct translation would be:
The strange thing about this case is the time the body of the tourist was in the sea without anyone bringing it on to their boat, per instructions from the Port Authority to not get in trouble with the law, as evidenced in a recording that has been published in various media.

 

[la_diver]

I was personally on the dive with this diver. He was a tourist at a resort and he had a medical condition that required a pace maker. While going to the dive site Columbia he stated that his doctor had warned him not to dive to fellow divers. Do not know his experience level. We entered the water and were 15 -20 minutes into our dive when we became separated . We were in a small group only 4 divers and 1 dive master . I personally had approximately 2,100 psi when we entered a swim thru. This was a large swim thru with 2 ways out, The dive master directed us to the exit making sure all divers went out. Upon exiting the swim through ,the diver was 1st, 2 other divers, dive master then myself. The dive master counted divers and we realized 1 was missing. Both myself and the dive master reentered the swim through looking up and around for the missing diver thinking maybe he had reentered the swim through other 2 divers went above and were looking for bubble trail and searching above the reef . After about 1-2 minutes, we observed the diver beside dive boat on the surface . Looked as if he was removing fins to get on boat and we resumed our dive thinking he had surfaced. From the time we were separated to the time we observed the diver at the surface was 5 minutes or less. There were a total of 7 divers on our boat and 2 dive masters. Our group had 4 divers and 1 dive master and the other group was a discover scuba group that only dove shallow with 3 divers and 1 dive master. visibility was at 100 + with slow current . I am commenting now to let everyone know my first hand knowledge of this accident in order to clarify the misinformation of this accident by the news papers. My thoughts and prayers are with the family during this tragedy.

 

[DandyDon]

I was personally on the dive with this diver. He was a tourist at a resort and he had a medical condition that required a pace maker. While going to the dive site Columbia he stated that his doctor had warned him not to dive to fellow divers.

He did...?!

Ok, thanks for the first hand report - helps a lot. So was he presumed dead and left floating for an hour as claimed by the news?

Some here may question your actions after he admitted he wasn't medically cleared to dive, but I've been there. I knew the diver was prohibited from diving by his doctor, the group organizer leading the trip knew, and I told her I would not go on the trip if he showed up. Then once on the livaboard, he shows up to fill the last slot. The organizer is known to be greedy. Given the choices of getting off the boat and back on the plane, causing a major problem with the operator by telling what I knew but without any proof, or what - I accepted that I had done what I could to prevent the situation. He was going to dive no matter what I did. Fortunately, he didn't have a stroke.

 

[kmarks]

Ok, thanks for the first hand report - helps a lot. So was he presumed dead and left floating for an hour as claimed by the news?

I'm not la_diver and I wasn't there, but I saw this story in La Verdad Noticias on Wednesday and what they published varies quite a bit from some of the reports people have copied here. They haven't updated their story (it seems they never update anything), and their story doesn't report his name, nor confirm his passing, but it doesn't make it sound like he was just floating randomly for hours or that boat captains were told to ignore him, either. They report that it was the boat he was on, Tara II, that reported him floating to the harbor master, and that a team from the marina's Aquatic Search and Rescue Station was dispatched to get him. When they got there, they found that he was actually still alive, not dead, and took him back to the station and he was transported from there by ambulance to a private clinic. Their version of the story is that it took about one hour from the time Tara II reported him to the time he was on dry land and waiting for the ambulance. They do also report that he was having problems with his pacemaker, lost consciousness, and ended up floating on the surface.

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks kmarks. Here is the google translation of that story, such as it is...

Cuerpo de turista es encontrado flotando en Cozumel | La Verdad Noticias

Tourist body is found floating in Cozumel

COZUMEL, Quintana Roo.- The tourist was diving when he was spotted floating nearby reef Colombia in the south of the island, which although initially was reported as dead, it was because he suffered difficulties with your pacemaker , which is being treated in a hospital.According to information gathered, was at 11: 15 am when it was reported to the Harbor, a person floating in the sea by Mariano Angulo, captain of the vessel "Tara II", at first it was thought that was not alive tourists which so far has not his name.As was alerted Station Search and Rescue Water Navy, so he left a boat of this unit which was the one to rescue the body, realized that he was still alive, moving it to the station where I arrived an hour later, where he was expected by an ambulance which you transfer to a private clinic.It was learned that the tourist will your pacemaker failure, so apparently lost consciousness being afloat.Tourists have hired the tour diving dive shop "BabeyKa" located inside the hotel Cid La Ceiba, from which would come in the morning to board the vessel "Tara II".ALBERTO TEJERO

 

[kmarks]

Thanks kmarks. Here is the google translation of that story, such as it is...

Google Translate tends to be a little less than perfect. A (hopefully) less incompetent translation of the story:

The tourist diver was found when he was spotted floating in the sea in the area near Columbia Reef, to the south of the island. Though he was at first reported as dead, he suffered problems with his pacemaker for which he was being treated in the hospital. According to the information gathered, it was at 11:15 am when Mariano Angulo, boat captain of "Tara II", reported to the harbor master that a person was floating in the sea. At first, it was believed that the tourist, whose name has not been released at this time, was dead.

The marina's Aquatic Search and Rescue station was alerted and sent out a boat to recover the body and they realized that he was still alive. He was transported to the station, and arrived an hour later where he waited for an ambulance which transported him to a private clinic.

It was learned that his pacemaker failed him, causing him to apparently lose consciousness and end up floating on the surface.

The tourist had hired the dive tour through the dive shop "BabeyKa", located inside of the hotel Cid la Ceiba, from which he had left that morning aboard the boat "Tara II."

 

[gopbroek]

Not trying to throw stones, but ask yourself what constitutes a decompression event and how shallow of water do you have to be in to not worry about depth any longer?

I agree with you on how sad it was for a gentleman to pass while on holiday. Just as it is sad that this gentleman died and it appears might have been alive while floating for an hour.

Does anyone yet know any of the circumstances with his dive/snorkeling trip?

I was not trying to throw rocks at any of the posters, my observation was that it seems that the local media in Cozumel has erred in initial reporting of dive related incidents in the past. It seems that the information gets refined over time and in the end the refined story may deviate significantly from the initial reports.

In the previous unfortunate incident the local media reported: (the diver)“whom the preliminary data indicate that the sea was taken at 15:50 hours because of an alleged decompression occurred”, which was in error. The area involved was pretty shallow (guessing but around 20-30'?) and he was accompanied by a very respected and experienced instructor.
Regardless of circumstance, my condolences go out to his family.

 

[cvchief]

I saw him delivered to the Navy boat by the dive boat. The crew on the Babieca dive boat were aggressively engaged in CPR and they were moving quickly to the Navy boat. I don't know what happened before that but what I saw was a dive op doing everything they could for him. The transfer was made in front of Palancar pier.

 

[MMM]

Cozumel media are NOTARIOUS for bad reporting. What I heard today matches what CVChief said...the captain of the boat which found him was alone on the boat and unable physically lift the person at the surface by himself. He couldn't have entered the water without putting his own boat in jeopardy (and therefore his own divers). So upon advice when he radioed in the accident, he somehow attached a rope to the victim. I am unclear as to whether the rescue boat was the same as the boat the victim was from, given a previous post that the victim was seen at the surface removing his fins. Presumably the DM would recognize his own boat and know his diver was getting on the right boat but that confirmation still is needed.

as I see it there are these issues.
1. The naval rescue group took their own sweet time in arriving...probably on the assumption the diver was dead, but an unacceptably long time
2. No buddy to ascend with this diver to assist with his return to the boat/rescue
3. Diver had at least one undisclosed medical condition. Would it preclude diving? I have no knowledge of the restrictions.

There is one other thing that is less of an issue, but more a protocol breach I think which probably did not aid in the rescue. The op I dive with here in Coz has a signal the boat captain uses with his engines to let the DM know that he needs to bring his group to the surface NOW!!!! And it is reserved for true emergencies. This should have probably been done by the boat captain whether the victim was from the rescue boat or not (assuming they had such a signal). As a customer, I would very willingly surface to assist in a rescue, had I been from the rescue boat. But maybe the captain lost sight of his divers' bubbles in all the hoo-hah.

 

[Sjcardon]

I am going to try and shed some more light on this incident. My brother in law and I with our wives were diving with another operator and had just come up for our surface interval when we heard a lot of chatter on the radio. We asked the boat captain what was wrong and he said someone was dead. We responded to the boat calling for help and passed at least 5 or 6 boats to get to the boat. We quickly got into the boat and found the diver held up out of the water with a rope through his bcd. He was a large man and it took four of us to lift him into the boat. I asked about a medic coming and he said they were on their way. Once in the boat we found him unresponsive, no heart beat, and not breathing so we immediately started CPR. As we were in the process of performing CPR those working on him were jolted with an electrical shock. I looked at his chest wall and immediately noted a pacemaker. So we knew his pacemaker was trying to shock him back into a normal cardiac rhythm. We continued working on him for 15-20 minutes when the rest of his dive group showed up on another boat. We then rotated with this group continuing CPR and traveling back toward one of the piers and met up with the medical boat. He was transferred to the medic boat. I would estimate that he received CPR for 30-40 minutes in total during transit. I don't know why he didn't have a dive buddy. i do know that he did not have his fins on when we pulled him into the boat.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family and I want them to know we did everything in our power to save him.