I don't have any idea what "simmer down" means in this context.
Yeah, this is the most difficult aspect for me of this very difficult report.
"Simmer down" sounds as if she thought he were overwrought or angry. If he was overwrought, he had no business at all returning to the water. If he was angry, he had no business being in the water
or having a speargun.
It, along with subsequent statements, sort of sounded as if she thought her son was a massive drama queen whose self-report of how he was doing could not be believed. One also wonders, based on how cavalier the "simmer down" statement was, if she thought of him as often emotionally unstable (like, you know, lots of teens are). In that case, why on earth is he being allowed to dive?
I didn't let my son start diving until I could trust him to function safely with some supervision. I promise you that, even with a quarter-century (then) of diving and being a physician, if he'd told me he thought he were bent he'd have been on his way to a chamber before he finished his sentence
even if I didn't believe him. If he'd exhibited any of the many worrisome symptoms described, he'd have been on his way to the nearest trauma center
even if he were objecting and punching me the entire way. When he was still a kid, I'd have felt justified in keeping him
out of the water for various reasons but
never forcing him into it (or anyone, really. I mean, what the hell?!?)
I've been around a
lot of parents of sick and dying kids for many years. I was one myself right at the end of my training. I'm aware of how danger to ones child can impair thinking and I'm prepared to grant a stressed parent a lot of latitude. I mean, I still don't work on the anniversary of my 18 month-old daughter's death, and that was in 1992; grief, worry, and panic don't mix well with critical decision-making. However, this doesn't really sound much like a parent stressed by fear for her child's life. In healthcare we usually get the excessively-worried parent (picture, if you will, a doctor whose daughter died in infancy of a malignant brain tumor every time his young son barfs - those were some patient pediatricians, I tells ya!).
Parents apparently unconcerned to this degree set off all sorts of warning bells. My 85 y/o mom will still worry about 60 y/o me and tell (doctor) me and my 58 y/o (FDA scientician) brother when to wear a coat. I'm sure many on this board are familiar with the concept. What in blazes was going on in that family's thinking? Again, if the kid had behavior problems or was so dramatic he'd be expected to malinger paralysis on graduation day, why would he be allowed to dive with weapons?
We've heard a lot from mom and there was slight mention of other adults on-site at home. What the heck was going on with them? Do we ignore half-paralyzed adolescents? No. We do not.
Also, my wife didn't attend high school graduation because she was on the Texas Clipper at the time for a Summer School at Sea program and was diving in Cozumel (for which I may forgive her someday). It didn't keep her from becoming a mad scientist. Maybe that mom didn't get to graduate from high school, but I think most people will recall that as one of the more boring experiences we've had. Was her concern because of serious doubts he'd ever make it that far? If so, I'm back to wondering why he'd be allowed to dive or have speargun(s).
I acknowledge that tacos are good, but as someone who usually hangs out on the Cozumel board I just now realized that mention of them is not necessarily a part of every single thread on Scubaboard (as is more-or-less mandatory in that forum).
I'm going to guess that this is one of those stories to the bottom of which we'll never get. (Sorry - recovering English major here.) The dive incident part is too obscured under the massive layers of incomprehensible strangeness and we have no access to any data from anyone who was in the water, their computer, or much else of use.
This was written significantly after the fact, when the kid was in the medical system, and there's no evidence of soul-searching or self-doubt even to the degree of trying to make herself look good (or, if she did, heaven help us all). I don't think the writer is a reliable informant.
This story is just about the weirdest thing I think I've heard, and I'm a psychiatrist for goodness' sake.
