Re: [Paddlewise] Teenager drowns on Chatooga, retrieval efforts dangerous

Bittersweet is way too weak.  I believed they talked for hours even naming
an unborn child.  No word fits that.

As for the drowning, I agree with nearly all comments. As a dive rescue
specialist with several recoveries as well as a decade of mountain rescue
with rescues and recoveries, I can tell you that this is really tough for
the rescuers and of course the family.

  It took me ten years to get partial closure from my experience on the
Episcopal School search and rescue on Mt. Hood.  For me it wasn't the act
of passing the bodies out of the snow cave so much as the aftermath of the
problems caused by a well placed egomaniac who nearly certainly delayed
locating the victims.  Media coverage never hit the mark because sensible
people didn't talk.  A state congressional investigation was carried out as
a result of accusations made by this person but quietly died after a month
long investigation by the responsible agency found him to be at fault, but
too popular after national heroe worship.  He later died at an early age
from a heart attack.

My experience with the rescue community otherwise has been that people will
do about anything short of obvious high risktaking during a rescue.
Unfortunately rescuers don't always know what they are getting into.
Diving in poor visibility and or in current may be particularly dangerous
but seem reasonable from the surface.  People may supress fear for fear of
looking weak.  I don't have figures, but the word in the dive rescue
community is that more rescuers die than victims saved. 

Feelings run high.  I think dad is stuck in an early stage of grieving and
needs counseling.  He's not helping matters for others - especially the
rescue community, some of whom will need critical stress debriefing.  The
media and politics that follow may be devastating.  The rescuer who carried
the little girl from the old well a few years ago committed suicide.
Senator Thurmond should stay out of this!!! 

So, It's not just for the environment that the Chatooga R. should be left
alone. That is another very good reason to scrap that plan, though.

Bill


At 12:18 PM 7/16/99 -0600, Shawn W. Baker wrote:
>Mark,
>Your mentioning that you'd brought this up reminded me that I need to
>have this serious discussion with my wife.  We both plan to be cremated
>too, and we'd both like to have our ashes scattered over either the
>Rocky mountains or the ocean.  I hope to convince her that if I'm ever
>"lost at sea" that it will "cut out the middleman" and she won't have to
>write a check to the undertaker.
>
>I know it's a tough subject, especially for the potential survivors of
>the deceased, but it needs to be discussed NOW before the time comes
>when such decisions are really tough.
>
>Take, for example Rob Hall, the New Zealand guide who died on Mt.
>Everest in 1996.  It was a beautiful thing that, although bittersweet,
>his wife was able to talk to him via satellite radio in his last
>breaths.  I'm sure coping with his death was not easy (it never is), but
>she probably realizes that bringing his body back would definitely risk
>the lives of others, and, that he will "rest forever" in a place he
>loved.
>
>Shawn
>
>Mark wrote:
>>the discussion of this was quite heated in my house ... my wife said she
>>would want my body back at any cost ... when i asked her why, she wouldn't
>>answer... i told her, since we were already clear either of us were to be
>>creamated, that i absolutely would NOT want people to risk their lives for
>>my dead ass. of course i expected people to work like hell to RESCUE me,
>>but not to retreive a body. it may be a few days before she speaks to me
>>again ;-( but we're on the same page ... peter is right, talk to your
>>spouses, SO's families, etc...
>
>                      0
>                ____©/______ 
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>Shawn W. Baker     0	http://www.missoulaconcrete.com/shawn/
>Baker Brothers		mailto://baker_at_montana.com
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