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John Hopkins

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
2184 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

In the days following the accident, some of the team begin retrieving the lines and gas cylinders that remain in the chamber.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

As they pull the shot line up, the movement dislodges Dave's body from the bottom of the cave and he floats up towards the surface.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

And, suspended below him by a thin cave line tangled around Dave's scuba gear, is D'Andrea.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

After the bodies are retrieved, attention turns to the camera Dave was wearing.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

The footage shows his dive went entirely to plan until he tried to place Dion into the body bag, at which point both he and the body became unexpectedly ensnared in the cave line.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

During the struggle to free himself from the tangle, Dave's breathing grew heavier, increasing the amount of CO2 he was emitting into his rebreather.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

As Don reckons with the loss of his friend, he is also struggling with his own physical recovery.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

The effects of his decompression sickness are so bad that it's feared he may never walk normally again, let alone dive.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

In the days that follow, he endures several sessions in the recompression chamber before Andre drives him for further treatment at a hospital in Pretoria.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

Though Don shows incremental improvement after each session, progress is dispiritingly slow.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

Yet, despite his debilitating symptoms, his determination to get back to diving propels him forward.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

Only a matter of months after the tragic events at Bushman's Hole, he tries re-entering the water at Kamati Springs for the first time.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

Despite everything, Don has returned many times to dive at Bushman's.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

In the years since the accident, he's had plenty of time to reflect on his near-death experience there and on what enabled him to survive.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

In the end, Dave did fulfill his promise to recover Dion's body, though he paid the highest price imaginable for it.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

At the behest of Dave's widow, Don scattered his friend's ashes near his home at Kamati Springs.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

The place where they first dived together, and where, two decades later, Don continues to dance in the water, both for himself and for Dave.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

In the next episode, we meet Mayan Sabag.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

In 2008, the 27-year-old is studying in the Chinese city of Chengdu.

Real Survival Stories
South Africa Cave Dive: Recovery Mission

One day, her friend suggests they escape the hustle and bustle and head to a remote nature reserve.