Puerto Rico's Flamenco Seashore — a distant, pristine crescent of sand alongside a stunning stretch of Caribbean blue water — is taken into account among the many world's greatest. It is on the island of Culebra, the place 1,800 folks stay year-round — only a fraction of the variety of vacationers that go to the island's lower than 12 sq. miles every single day.
However locals are conscious of the attractive seaside's greatest danger: In case your life is at risk, medical assist isn't round. Till lately, the seaside didn't have a lifeguard to observe over its waters.
Rip currents play a big function in Puerto Rico's common 30 drowning deaths annually. There have been 18 recognized recorded drowning deaths on the island of Culebra since 1994 and three recognized recorded drowning deaths off Flamenco Seashore since December 2021.
Manny Ma was visiting from Boise, Idaho — one of many half-million or extra vacationers legal professional Julian Rivera Aspinall estimates go to annually — when he drowned whereas snorkeling final December. His household's legal professional stated Ma's spouse discovered him floating within the ocean.
"He was finally pronounced useless and sadly, there wasn't any means of with the ability to save his life right here on the seaside," Aspinall stated. The lone lifeguard, employed mid-Might, now works 7 a.m. to three p.m. weekdays and alternate weekends — and nobody screens the seaside at different occasions.
The seaside additionally lacks paramedics and stocked ambulances. Edilberto Romero Llovet, the mayor of Culebra, advised "CBS Mornings" lead nationwide correspondent David Begnaud that he is making an attempt to vary issues however the excessive value of dwelling on the island and a scarcity of licensed personnel make it tough to make use of certified medical professionals.
"I would like paramedics. I would like a health care provider. I would like a Technical Emergency. I would like these folks to come back to work in Culebra," he stated.
Llovet stated he's making an attempt to pay skilled folks to maneuver to Culebra and might provide good pay to certified candidates. Whereas he waits to rent extra folks, he installs bilingual indicators, crimson flags and even added a lifeguard stand across the seaside.
Aspinall stated that the mayor's additions have been a step in the appropriate route for a seaside that has a historical past of drownings apart from Ma's.
"I'm very pleased that the island of Culbera is finally taking steps in order that these kinds of accidents do not occur once more. My consumer's accident was not the one accident that has occurred right here," Aspinall stated.
In February, Sharuja Paramanathan traveled together with her husband and three kids to Flamenco Seashore from Canada. Thiva, Paramanathan, 40-year-old husband, was out swimming when he started to drown.
Onlookers known as 911, nearly as good Samaritans administered CPR. Sharuja recalled the agonizing feeling of ready half-hour for an ambulance — and her desperation when she realized the ambulance was, as she described it, only a "taxi."
"Lastly, the ambulance got here. The particular person I keep in mind asking any person requested in the event that they know how one can do CPR. And I keep in mind him asking, 'What's CPR?'" So at the moment I sort of misplaced my hope," she stated.
The ambulance did not have any lifesaving tools, like a defibrillator that would assist resuscitate her husband.
Thiva was dropped at the island's solely medical middle the place he was pronounced useless.
Sharuja believes that her husband would nonetheless be alive had extra been finished to save lots of him.
"I am from Sri Lanka. And I have been in an ambulance in Sri Lanka, and it is a third-world nation. They usually have a significantly better facility than this. A lot, significantly better facility," she stated.
Emily Jiminez, a licensed medical assistant, and Emily Bowcutt, a registered nurse, have been two of the nice Samaritans on the seaside that day. Neither has seen Sharuja since however every remembers how heartbreaking the incident is.
"I've had each feeling conceivable from anger to frustration, to unhappiness. There's folks that stay there. What sort of care are they getting?" Bowcutt stated.
As they carried out CPR, each Jiminez and Bowcutt remembered questioning the place the ambulance was.
"I used to be the one doing compressions after they confirmed up, and I simply regarded up and I stated, 'Hey, we're all exhausted. Is there any means you guys may take over for us or assist us?'" stated Bowcutt.
However to each of their shock, the ambulance drivers advised them that they don't do CPR. Not one of the first responders who arrived, together with David Perez, assisted with CPR.
Perez, a resident dwelling on Culebra, stated he's a licensed paramedic. He posted on his Fb web page that he had handed the check. He was one of many first responders to reach on the seaside that day when good samaritans have been making an attempt to revive Sharuja's husband. However he advised Begnaud that his solely function was to help the ambulance chauffeur.
"My job description is the technician the emergency administration. No EMT. No paramedic, No, nothing to assist," he stated.
He claims as soon as they obtained into the ambulance, he carried out CPR on Thiva— Sharuja stated that by no means occurred.
Perez stated that in Puerto Rico paramedics generally don't even get assist from the police.
Each Jiminez and Bowcutt consider that extra may have been finished to save lots of Thiva, and they want the federal government to step up and assist make Culebra protected and stop extra drowning deaths.
"I assumed they have been going to provide care, however I felt simply sick about all of it, that that man didn't get the justice of care that he wanted," Bowcutt stated. "There's so many issues that, simply basic items, that would've given him a greater consequence, and we did not have any of that."
They each stated they do not they might return to Culebra due to the hazard it poses.
"I really feel prefer it's too huge of a danger, particularly with my household. At this level there needs to be one thing finished," Bowcutt stated.
5 days after CBS Information left Culebra in April 2022, a 58-year-old man died after drowning on Flamenco Seashore, in response to the Nationwide Climate Service, which tracks drowning deaths nationwide.
Begnaud reached out to Llovet's workplace which stated since they employed the lifeguard in mid-Might, there have been no reported drownings there.