BVI - Rigid Inflatable (dinghy) accident, while snorkeling in a protected snorkeling area, with a dive flag displayed...
December 30th 2005, the second day of our 10 day vacation to the British Virgin Islands on our Chartered 50' Beneteau, myself and two good friends were snorkeling over a protected reef just off Marina Cay (with a diver down flag being displayed) enjoying the beauty of the BVI and Marina Cay. Soon after entering the water and snorkleing over on the surface over the reef, within about 100 feet of our boat I was run over by a "drunk guy" operating a rigid inflatable outboard boat. The skeg of the outboard motor first impacted me right in the center of my forehead only to be flowed by the propeller blades which took two more slices right on the top of my scalp and continued down to my right rear shoulder blade that caused a lacerated to my shoulder muscle. Once pulled from the water and stabilized I was soon transported to Peebles Hospital in Tortola where I was treated and sewn up to close the over 14" of lacerations on my scalp. Notice the deplorable job that the local doctor performed at the hospital and notice the size of the thread used... I really looked like Frankenstein!!! The next morning, Dr. Michael Suah, one of my snorkeling buddies during the accident and oh, also he’s my trauma doctor from back in Ormond Beach who missed the evac to the hospital. Dr. Suah came the next morning to inspect my head wounds and he quickly informed me that ALL of the stitches would have to be removed and redone as they had been so poorly done at Peeples Hospital in Tortola... These photos here show the "second" time that I had to be sewn up. Dr. Suah and Laura my "new nurse”, performed the rework right there on the balcony of our hotel there in the BVI's...These photos were taken from the balcony of the Mooring Hotel during the second procedure... At least this time, Dr. Sauh had Novocain unlike the first time’s stitches at Peebles hospital, which had none... Yeah, that hurt... I hope that you're not eating anything... So that is the rest of the story and why I now have "short hair"...
All in all, I really do have to count my blessing and I know that my Guardian Angles, really were with me that day as I really should have died... Besides the obvious scaring, and the headache that I endured for over 18 months after the accident, "so far, so good..." I guess in a relative term, as for most of you that know me, you know that I live mostly on "the edge"...
Life's short, play hard and make the most of Your Dash...
Ben
\
