Posted by John Jo on August 07, 2001 at 16:38:38:
In Reply to: Bent because of DM incompetence... posted by Cygal on August 07, 2001 at 15:10:19:
Dear Cygal,
Wow, that's a really a bad story. Please forgive my intial skepticism about ascribing your DCS to the DM. Clearly proper care was not excercised by the dive operation and your DM sounds like a real jerk. Cattle car diving in Mexico is especially risky for divers new to the sport, and not much fun for more advanced divers either.
I feel really bad that you learned some of the good lessons you mentioned in this post the hard way.
Sadly, I have even less confidence in the Mexican legal system than in Mexican dive operations, so I think any efforts to be compensated for your injuries may be an excercise in futility, frustration and additional expense.
Filing suit in the U.S. could work if this company has any exposure here, but my guess is that is a long shot.
If you are serious about helping others to avoid being placed in the same "no-win" situation, I would encourage you to publicize your experience as much as possible on the internet and include the name of the operation, boat, associated hotel if any, and any dive organizations that lend their imprimatur to the dive company in question.
Along those last lines, I think the advice elsewhere to pursue the matter with PADI (or whatever the associated certifying agency is in this case is) is a good one. They should investigate and yank their charter - or suffer the same bad publicity
Good luck and safe future diving!