Single Mom Dies While Swimming with Son
by Star-Bulletin Staff, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 7, 2006
For the original article, Click Here.
A 43-year-old Canadian woman died Thursday afternoon after she became ill while she and her son were swimming off the Waianae coast.
Police said the woman and her 12-year-old son went to swim with the dolphins along the Leeward Coast. After being in the water for five minutes, she became ill and was brought to the harbor.
The woman, a single parent, died while being transported to St. Francis Medical Center-West, police said.
Jessica Lani Rich, president of Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, said she was called to the hospital emergency room along with volunteer Richard Soo to comfort the boy after he was told his mother had died.
The boy was sent home to Calgary, Canada. According to a Visitor Aloha Society press release, the boy’s aunt, Linda Kockerback, said, “Everything was taken care of for us in getting our nephew back home. … An entire group of people pulled together and got us through a very difficult time.”