Vacationing nurse dies cave tubing

A dream trip turned into a nightmare for a family from Orlando, Florida today when cave tubing in Frank’s Eddy Village ended fatally. This morning when the Carnival Glory entered Belize’s port, Linda and Eduardo Linan, were among the over three hundred tourists who disembarked from the cruise ship and boarded a Belcruise tour bus to go cave tubing in Caves Branch. Hours later the fifty year old nurse, mother and wife was dead. News Five’s Kendra Griffith reports.

Eduardo Linan, Husband
“I just feel weak right now; I am still trying to recover. I still cannot believe it happened, cannot believe.”

Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Hours after the incident, Linda Linan’s husband, Eduardo, was still trying to grapple with what happened. In shock, he told us that things got scary towards the end of the tour as the current began to push them against the wall of the cave.

Eduardo Linan
“We both got really hard pushing against the cave and the guard taking care of everybody was saving everybody else ahead of us. We knew we needed help so we screamed so loud to say please help, please help and it’s taking us all the way to the wall. We hit the rock and I figure, we are going to push our hands and our feet against. It’s a little specific thing where you go like a tunnel, it suck you right underneath the cave, the rock. And we both got together … I don’t remember anything because I think we flip upside down. Somebody was watching my wife and I and it was just second and we keep going down, down, down and you can tell the water pressure is pushing us inside the cave. I kind of panicked and I am trying to keep my mouth shut to keep little air, trying to find my way. I was trying to find where to go. It took maybe twenty seconds, fifteen seconds and I was like no more air. I said, I am dying right here.”

Linan was rescued by a fellow tourist, but says when he broke through the surface, he had lost his wife.

Eduardo Linan
“I said, please check my wife, my wife. They said don’t worry, they’re gonna be after your wife. The current, it’s gonna push you. You cannot stay still because it was kinda deep and you keep going and going. I knew I was going away and I kept looking back and I said please my wife, Linda, Linda; screaming. That’s all I remember because after that there’s no way, nobody helping me. A girl told me don’t worry, they found her and she’s in good condition they bring her on the other side. She said continue, got to the go to the ship and she will come up on the next bus and that’s when I knew something was really wrong.”

Minutes later, Linda was pulled from the water, unconscious.

Fidelio Montes Jr. Tour Guide, Jaguar Paw Resort
“A lot of people were very frantic, a lot of people were, I could easily say, shocked, people were crying nonrelatives. For the most part it was a very scary moment.”

Fidelio Montes Jr., a tour guide and driver for Jaguar Paw Resort was sitting with other employees when they heard the commotion and ran to the river to help.

Fidelio Montes Jr.
“We initially got to where the cave entrance was and we saw some people that were with a person, a female person, administering some CPR. I guess they had battled with her for quite some time because I had asked the person how long they were there since I’m also first aid certified and they said they were probably working on her for thirty minutes. So I decided to give it a try myself, I tried for three minutes, I timed it. you know normal first aid procedures and I decided to move on, I decided to start moving other people while some of the other guys were trying to help people getting out of the water and so forth.”

Eduardo Linan
“I went to the truck and I saw her laying on the table. There was nothing in the details to say that it was something dangerous. All it said was that you had to be over twenty-one and we understood why because they don’t want nobody with heart conditions or heart problems.”

Kendra Griffith
“Your wife had no pre-existing conditions?”

Eduardo Linan
“No conditions. We both ran a marathon, so you can imagine we were in good shape.”

Kendra Griffith
“Usually, is cave tubing dangerous?”

Fidelio Montes Jr.
“On a normal basis, no ma’am. I mean everybody goes in, we use our life jackets, we take proper procedures. I must say that it is one of the high risk tours around but this is the first time we ever encountered anything like this. When I say we, I mean just to clarify us from Jaguar Paw, we’re just assisting.”

The tour was conducted by Belcruise… and tonight there are concerns over safety.

Eduardo Linan
“They cancelled this specific trip a couple days ago because of the high water and today was not normal, it was a little higher than normal. However, it was decided to continue with the caving.”

The incident occurred on the footsteps of the Jaguar Paw Jungle Resort. Owner, Donna Young, says the resort cancelled its caving tubing tours due to concerns over the strong currents.

Donna Young, Owner, Jaguar Paw Jungle Resort
“The river was running a little bit too high, a little bit too dangerous for our liking. Since we live here, we monitor it everyday and the thing that happens is that people can leave Belize City and the river is very low and then within an hour depending on the water coming from the Maya mountains, it can rise several feet. And so the people get here and they think the river is okay and if they’re told don’t do it some are a little bit, I the to say greedy, but they’ll chance it.”

Linan is now asking for an investigation.

Eduardo Linan
“The way I know her, she probably would like me to make a statement that there must be a full investigation on the accident. This should never be happening, never.”

Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

Linda’s body was transported to Belize City where it awaits a post-mortem examination. Linda and Eduardo Linan have three children.