Hyperbaric Chambers Are Also Good for
Amputated Penises. A 22-year-old man in Dallas,
TX, cut off his penis with a knife (why, we can only
surmise), then sought treatment three hours later at
the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
After sewing the penis back on, using vein grafts, surgeons
gave the patient 10 milligrams daily of Cialis,
and several days of chamber treatment. The guy can
urinate normally again, but was still waiting on a
return of sensation in his private parts.
Chivalry or Chauvinism? We received a lot
of reader comments to help us put together our
story in the May issue "Are Some Male Divers Too
'Helpful?'" Ken Kurtis, owner of Reef Seekers dive
shop in Beverly Hills, CA, sent us this note from his
Bonaire group dive trip in May. "I'm standing on the
dock at Buddy Dive, waiting to load up for the 8:10
a.m. boat. Among the 16 divers is a husband/wife
team, and all I hear is her saying, 'I don't need any
help. I can put it on the boat myself.' And he simply
ignores her and grabs her bag. She goes, 'Really . . . I .
. . can . . . do . . . it . . . myself. Or not.' So I walk over
and say to her, 'There's this article in this month's
Undercurrent that I think you should read because
it describes exactly what just happened here.' She
laughed. I told him about it later too, and he basically
said, 'I never thought of it that way. I thought I was
just being chivalrous. I'll file it away way.' So maybe
you can teach an old dog new tricks."
Forget the Poor Mexicans, Go After the Big Hotel
Chain. We've written about the fatal dive of Ronda
Cross in March 2012 while diving off Cabo San
Lucas with her cousin, Roxanne Amundson. Cross
didn't surface, and her body was later found floating
nearby. Her husband believed she was overcome by carbon monoxide in her tank, and he filed a lawsuit
against PADI late last year. Now Roxanne Amundson has
filed her own suit for "personal injuries and emotional
distress," naming the dive operation that filled the tanks
-- and the tenant that leases space to the dive shop, the
Wyndham Cabo San Lucas Resort, because it "supervised,
controlled, advertised, endorsed, recommended,
employed and contracted with [the dive shop] to provide
said excursions." Wyndham Hotels and Resorts moved to
dismiss the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego,
CA, because "Mexican law provides adequate alternative
forum to hear Amundson's claims." Her lawyers replied,
among other things, that Mexico has a very limited system
of damages, and Amundson would have no meaningful
remedy, whereas the U.S. courts do provide for liability
for defendants. The court ruled that Wyndham failed to
show Mexico as an adequate forum for the lawsuit and
denied its motion to dismiss, so Amundson's case moves
onward. And, of course, of all the potential defendants,
Wyndham has the deepest pockets.
Mom Fights for Diving Son Jailed in Honduras. Rosemary Carroll of Doyletown, PA, is fighting for the
safe return of her son, Devon Butler, after he and five
other divers were unfairly imprisoned during a dive
expedition in Honduras. Butler, 27, is the lead diver for
the Florida-based ocean salvaging company Aqua Quest,
and he and his team went to Honduras on May 1 to take
mahogany logs from the bottom of a river to help with
flooding, and also to teach Honduran lobster divers how
to dive properly. To protect themselves from pirates,
Butler's team was carrying five guns on their 65-foot
boat, but their boat was intercepted in the town of Ahuas
and the men were arrested and charged with smuggling
weapons. Carroll told the Philadelphia Daily News that the
guns were legally in compliance with international maritime
law. She has called upon lawyers and lawmakers
to get the men back home, and her Congressman, Mike
Fitzpatrick, says he is working with U.S. officials and has
reached out to the Honduran ambassador for help.