To Jim Lapenta.
I have been thinking long and hard about how I want to respond to your post. First of all, I do not believe we know each other, but I will say that I am friends with many people on this board for a good number of years now and live and work in Cozumel. I have been coming here as a diver for over 20 years. I also want to let you know that I am one of the people that helped raise money for Opal and Gabi’s medical expenses after the accident. I also dove with them for several years when it was still Scuba Mau.
First of all, there is no “secret club” or “code of silence”, or whatever you choose to name it. None of us have any problems talking about past events regarding dive accidents and traumas. However, with that being said, many people, after time, do not care to do so. Furthermore, talking about it should be their choice and if it brings up pain and suffering for them than it is most certainly their prerogative not to do so. Just because you are an active member on a scuba forum, does not give you the right to demand to know facts or to accuse an entire dive community of somehow having a code of silence? Impossible on this small island. So you decide to post your own speculations, thereby twisting the facts because you are hanging out with friends, dive masters or dive operators who have their own opinions on what took place, which you chose to take as the truth.
Why don’t you just read through the threads and the hundreds of comments when it happened four and a half years ago. They are still here, and you are welcome to take your own time to read through them and come to your own conclusions about what took place instead of randomly speculating here and dredging up painful events and making ridiculous statements and observations about what took place and about our dive community.
I would like to make a few comments please, and then I am going to try my darndest not to comment any further. Mostly, because I just don’t have the time these days to read and make too many comments and more importantly because I want to say what I have to say and then move on.
It is clear and has been so for over four years now, that many mistakes were made that day and that personal and irresponsible choices were made. A young instructor lost her life because of it and a dive master went after her, knowing fully well that he was risking his life to bring her back and now he is paralyzed. You can speculate on and on, but you were not there and neither were the other people you spoke with. So why sit here and ruminate and conjecture about an entire dive community or dive operation and a dive accident from four years ago. Nor, should you come to a public forum and try to stir the pot and stir up pain and loss over something that is done. You will never, ever know the pain and personal devastation it caused so many lives! I politely invite you to find something more constructive to do with your time.
I want to address something you said that has been really bothering me since I read your comment.
You said: “Just as bad was the fact that valuable resources were tied up to aid two people doing something stupid.” Your callous comment just hit me like someone punched me in the stomach.
Again, very poor choices were made among a group of local divers, but to intimate that they somehow didn’t deserve the medical resources they received because they did something irresponsible?
Let me ask you something, please. How responsible is it when someone comes to Cozumel on a dive vacation and they stay up most of the night partying and drinking until the wee hours, grab a few hours of sleep, and show up on the dive boat hungover and dehydrated? How many cruise ship passengers do you see zooming by whooping it up drunk on a moped or in a rental Jeep here? Have you ever seen that? Well, I have! Almost every single day! So when an accident is the result of someone doing something stupid, are you saying they do not deserve the best medical trauma attention Cozumel has to give to them?? And how many people do you know that come on a dive trip and don’t have dive insurance or any medical insurance? What happens when they get into trouble and they need a hyperbaric chamber right away? Do you think they are turned away? I hope and pray that you never, ever have to worry about you, a friend or a relative, getting prompt medical care because you do not have insurance!
For such a small island, Cozumel has an amazingly strong medical community. If it weren’t for people like hyperbaric medical specialist Dr. Pascual Piccolo and San Miguel Hospital /Hyperbaric chamber and Mauricio Moreno Peralta owner of the Cozumel International Clinic /Hyperbaric chamber, we could have easily had three deaths. These people stepped up and made decisions to treat these local divers, knowing fully well that two were without any medical insurance. They gave of their time, their trauma services, greatly discounted chamber rides to save their lives, fully knowing that they might never be paid. You need to remember that these are small private hospitals and operate with no funding and on a very narrow margins,unlike larger hospitals in the states.
I want you to know that I am so very proud and grateful to the Scuba Board dive community and its members! If it weren’t for all of you that contributed when we sent out a plea for help, we would not have been able to help these divers and also turn around and try to pay some of these astronomical local medical bills.
I also want to thank Apple with Dive Paradise and Dave Dillehay who personally contributed donations toward Gabi’s medical expenses and needs. There are many divers on this board that supported Gabi and still do, as he will always have medical expenses and needs. I apologize if I left any other names off, and I am sure there are many. I just want to say that this entire dive community stepped up and did an amazing thing and I can never express my deepest gratitude for coming to help Opal, Gabi, their families and our medical community. I ask that when you are in Cozumel, to please stop by Gabi’s shop off the Plaza (Yellow building – Plaza del Sol). He could use your support and even more so, he needs your kind words and hugs. Let’s keep his spirits up, please. I ask that you please stop these kind of posts, give this a rest and find a more constructive way to use your energy and your precious time. Please think about the damage you do when someone reads these kind of comments, especially for the friends and family involved. Please let us all heal. Thank you.
Jennifer
PS. And most urgently, if you do not have dive insurance, then I beg you…if you have the money to take a dive trip, then you have an extra $50-$90 dollars to pay for dive Insurance. God forbid it is you that needs medical attention one day. Safe diving.
