John Gilbert Freemyer - Carnival Cruise Lines Miracle Passenger Drowning

Government pathologist Dr. John Heidingsfelder assisted the court with comments on the autopsy report of Dr. Garfield Blake, who performed the post mortem examination.

The presence of a lot of water in the lungs and foamy matter in the airways indicated drowning, he said.

Mr. Freemyer was a 52 year old, 6'5" tall man, weighing 250 pounds.

Mrs. Mary Freemyer, his wife, said Mr. Freemyer was fine the night before. He was an advanced certified diver. She did not dive, so she went on an undersea adventure tour while he went diving.

The first dive was at Sand Chutes off Caribbean Club. The captain and other crew member took the divers to the front of the boat, where they submerged. Mr. Nelson said he was the safety person on board.

Toward the end of the dive, about 15–20 minutes, he heard voices at the front of the boat. He found a husband and wife who had surfaced, the wife having a nose bleed. He had her swim to the back of the boat with her husband and he assisted her out of the water.

As he did so, he noticed something yellow two or three feet under the water to the left of the boat. He realised it was a diver, so he jumped in. When he reached the diver, he inflated the man’s buoyancy control device, which acted like a life jacket.

The man’s regulator was not in his mouth and he was unconscious.

Mr. Nelson said he took off the man’s weight belt and mask and dragged him to the boat. He asked a male customer to help get Freemyer onboard. He did not feel a pulse so he gave two rescue breaths. The customer knew CPR, so he took over while Mr. Nelson called headquarters on the radio. Then he got the emergency kit and continued chest compressions.

He asked the woman on board to bang on the ladder with a lead weight to attract the other divers to come to the surface. CPR continued as the divers boarded.

Mr. Nelson’s group was on the Cayman Sky. The Cayman Wall came alongside and someone jumped on board to assist so the captain could get ready to head to shore. Mr. Nelson did the head count to make sure they had all their guests.

He tried to find out who was the man’s diving buddy. One man said he was. He said he and the injured diver did not know each other before the trip. This person, who was not identified, told Mr. Nelson that the man had said he wanted to head back and up.

They were making their way back to the boat when they somehow got separated. So the buddy went back to the group and continued the dive.

The boat arrived at the Atlantis dock and paramedics came on board with their equipment. Shortly afterwards, they decided to remove him by stretcher to an ambulance.

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