Cruise tourist drowns during snorkelling trip

| 15/08/2017 | 18 Comments

(CNS): A 70-year-old woman who was visiting Grand Cayman on a cruise ship yesterday morning (14 August) died after a snorkelling trip, police have said. The woman, who was from the United States, was said to have encountered difficulties at Coral Gardens in North Sound at around 11am. She was pulled from the water into the boat where the crew and other people on the excursion performed CPR and gave her oxygen.

Police and the emergency services were told that she was being brought to shore to the Yacht Club fuel dock in West Bay. Once on land she was treated by medics but pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The police thanked the members of the public who helped during this incident and asked anyone with information to call the George Town Police Station at 949-4222.

Anonymous tips can also be provided  to the RCIPS Confidential Tip Line at 949-7777, the Miami-based call centre of Crime Stoppers at 800-8477(TIPS), or online here.

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Comments (18)

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  1. Gloria says:

    This woman deserves respect. If he wanted to practice snorkeling he did.

  2. Shelly says:

    I am the daughter of this woman and want to thank those who have expressed sympathies. Thanks, We needed that.

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    • Liz & Paul says:

      Our deepest sympathies to you and your family. Our hearts are with you

    • Helena Campbell says:

      I was on the cruise and just found out about the accident, my deepest sympathy to the family, i cant begin to imagine thinking about a family vacation going so tragically wrong. So sad sending blessing to the family.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Someone lost their life.
    Instead of showing compassion fools come on here with their pathetic comments and ignorance …my goodness now that is sad !

    My this lady rest peacefully and may the lord help her family through this very difficult time.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Seriously old people over 50 need a swimming partner… always

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    • Liz & Paul says:

      I’m 55 and don’t consider myself old – I regularly take part in marathon swimming events – I’m not here to get into an argument with you over your lack of knowledge/respect for people older that you seem to be so I’m not going to go there. I am here to offer my sympathies and respect to the family of this lady

  5. Sharkey says:

    Now this is very sad and pathetic that the Police wouldn’t take a statement from everyone on the boat , but would ask people to call George town police station . How would police know if that person calling was ever on the boat ? If they got a statement from the people on the boat it would make more sense than asking to call .

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Aw poor lady. Another tourist yet again passing away doing this activity. I’m beginning to feel there should be a competence and age restriction on snorkelling trips if this indeed was the case, as so many have lost their lives. My condolences to this dear ladies family. RIP

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    • Anonymous says:

      In addition ,we can also lobby for a competence & age restriction for using a pedestrian crossing , if that would make you feel safer ?

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      • Anonymous says:

        The way things are going 12.40 we’ll need a pedestrian test to avoid those idiot boy racers who are killing everyone on the roads.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Seriously, how compentenence and restriction on the operators of snorkel excursions.?. Poor woman and her family. RIP

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    • Sharkey says:

      Anonymous 11:54am , I completely disagree with you . The competence restrictions should not be on age or snorkeling trips or diving , the competence is on the Captain of the boat .
      I have over 20 years experience of dealing with hundreds of thousands of people and never had a tragedy to happen to anyone .
      In my career I have seen them to think that they knew everything about the water but really didn’t know anything .
      I have had 75 year-old people on my boat that didn’t know how to swim or knew how to snorkel , but they were able to go snorkeling and enjoy all of the trip to the fullest .

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      • Anonymous says:

        Congratulations 11.54 I wish everyone was like you. Sadly they are not. You have to admit, there has been a lot of deaths during this activity. Maybe they all have underlying medical issues they didn’t realise they had. It’s so sad. I’m now 63yrs and feel I’m on borrowed time. I too, enjoyed snorkelling when I was in my 20’s on SMB and Rum Point. It’s a good job we don’t know what’s in front of us. I take things easier now. I’ve seen too much tragedy in my life. I lost my husband at 56yrs who thought he was immortal and worked in Construction in Cayman all hours God created. All work and no play made Jack a dull boy. That is the UK work ethic.

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        • Anonymous says:

          5:57 You’re right and often these things are completely unpredictable. 25 years ago I was working in a resort where full medicals were mandatory for all open water scuba students. It was actually illegal for us to take them into the water without prior medical clearance. The exam included a chest x-ray and anyone over 40 also had to have an ECG. Despite that we had a woman in her early-30s suffer a fatal cardiac arrest during confined water training in 8-10 feet of water.

          I also remember working with certified divers at other resorts who were just accidents waiting to happen. One customer signed off his waiver with no health problems then a few hours later was spotted taking half-a-dozen medications that he hadn’t declared. Another who had AOW certification somehow ran out of air about 15 minutes into a shallow shore dive – at that point my SPG was still at 2800psi. Any instructor will tell you similar stories.

          The fact is simply that whatever you do there will be fatalities and statistically it’s still more dangerous on the golf course or the squash court than snorkeling or scuba diving.

          I stopped scuba diving just after turning 60 simply because I could sense that my comfort zone was becoming a bit less comfortable than it should be. I’d enjoyed it for 20 years, done numerous deep (some of them over 200′) dives along with some pretty impressive wreck diving and frankly was able to just walk away from it. Sadly, there are a lot of people who just refuse to accept the inevitable.

    • Anonymous says:

      it is their responsible for their own health check not the boat company or the crew as we are not the doctors.

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      • Anonymous says:

        So true! I hate to tell everyone but we are ALL going to die! You can hide in a safe room waiting to it to come or you can live your life an enjoy it while it lasts. If I shave a few months (or even years) off my life by living it, it beats not having lived at all. I can think of worse ways to die than while on my vacation in a beautiful place doing something exciting.

  7. Anonymous says:

    RIP.

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