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RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE
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D A N W A S T H E R E F O R M E
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WINTER 2012
B y S T a N H o m E R
Concussed Cruiser
in Colombia
M
y wife, Lynn, and I have been diving for
more than 40 years, but this story is not
about diving. It’s about sailing and how
DAN
®
helped take care of us when things
got dicey at sea.
We launched Homers’ Odyssey, our 41-foot sailing cutter,
on Vancouver Island in 1984. It spent its first 25 years in the
Pacific; we even made a trip across to New Zealand and back
via Alaska with our two children. In 2004 we retired and
again headed south from British Columbia along the coast
to Mexico and points beyond. In early 2010 we transited the
Panama Canal into the Caribbean and sailed for the San Blas
Islands and Cartagena, Colombia.
We spent Christmas 2010 aboard Homers’ Odyssey near
Cartagena with cruisers from a dozen other boats, many of
whom we had previously met. Our plan was to depart for
Roatan, Honduras, as soon as the weather looked suitable.
Along the way, we intended to stop over at the Colombian
island of Providencia, off the coast of Nicaragua. Including
the detour, the sail to Roatan would be just less than 400
miles. We departed Dec. 30 and had sailed 300 of those
miles when we ran into deteriorating weather, a series of
squalls and confused seas.
During one of these squalls, at 3 a.m. on Jan. 2, Lynn
missed a handhold and fell backward as the boat lurched,
striking the back of her head on the safety bar of the stove. I
was topside on the wheel at the time and felt the impact of
her hitting the stove down below. An injury at sea was not
how we wanted to bring in the New Year.
She did not lose consciousness, but from the force of the
hit we knew this might be serious. I checked for any external
bleeding or deformity and then arranged a pillow for her
on the floor and told her to stay there until the squall had
subsided. After about 15 minutes I was able to return to the
cabin and assist her into our bunk. The nearest hospital was
on Providencia, but it would take almost two days before we
could actually get anchored and have her checked out there.
During the following days she had severe headaches, and
we used cold packs to try to reduce swelling, but we did not
have any medications we thought would do any good.
When we made it onshore in Providencia, the shipping
agent summoned the local doctor to meet us in a little
restaurant near the dinghy dock for Lynn’s initial inspection.
The locals found it very entertaining when she was given
a painkiller shot in the rear end — in full view of the
restaurant’s patrons and staff. A few hours later, with the
help of an X-ray, the doctor determined she should be kept
in the local hospital overnight and then transported to San
Andrés, a larger Colombian island some 55 miles away.
The hospital at San Andrés was much bigger and better
equipped. While Lynn was getting her X-ray, I called
DAN to inform them we might have a situation requiring
some support. Little did I know just how much support we
would need.
The next day, Jan. 4, Lynn was flown to San Andrés and
transported by ambulance from the airport to the hospital.
There she immediately received the first of several CT scans.
It revealed internal bleeding, which seemed to be the cause
of her headaches. A second CT scan showed that no further
bleeding was occurring, but the doctors advised she should
remain in the hospital. On Jan. 19, after the third CT scan,
the doctor thought things were improving and that Lynn
could return to our boat if we promised not to move it for a
week. As we left the hospital, I noticed a DAN sticker on the
wall of the emergency department. It was a nice reminder
that DAN is everywhere.
We took the doctor’s advice, and thank goodness we did.
After three days back aboard Homers’ Odyssey in Providencia,
I started noticing things that caused me concern, such as my
wife dropping objects with her left hand and not realizing it.
The intensity of her headaches also seemed to be increasing.
I called DAN again as well as the neurologist in San Andrés.
We made the decision to take Lynn back to the hospital for
a fourth CT scan to determine whether she needed to be
medically escorted back to Canada. That morning, after the
examination, Lynn collapsed in our hotel room in San Andrés
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