We tend to think of dolphins as kind and gentle creatures. There are plenty of examples of them playing with young children. We tell stories of them guiding ships back to land. Their faces look like they’re wearing a permanent smile. Despite their reputation as ocean puppies, dolphins can be quite aggressive.
Even when they aren’t intentionally trying to cause harm, their sheer strength can do some real damage. Sadly, this is what happened when one Tennessee mother swam with dolphins while vacationing with her family in Jamaica.
‘It’s like you’re gliding through the water,’ Stockard said.
What began as a beautiful encounter with these majestic creatures turned into a freak accident for Cierra Stockard, who swam with dolphins during her spring break, WKRN reports. One minute, she was soaring. “It’s like you’re going into a cheerleading position — like you’re a flyer on top of the pyramid,” Stockard said. “They just push you through the water and it’s like you’re gliding through water.”
But things changed quickly. One of the dolphins lifted her in the air and Stockard fell, according to Suggest.com.
When Stockard fell, she landed on top of the dorsal fin of one of the dolphins. She felt the impact of the collision immediately. “It just felt like I got into a car accident,” she told WKRN via phone from a hospital in Jamaica. “The force of it — It felt like boom! Something just happened really bad. I was just in so much pain. Tears were just running down my face.”
The fall caused a large hematoma and Stockard was rushed to the hospital in Montego Bay. There, she underwent emergency surgery. In addition to the pain, Stockard was afraid that she might never see her daughters again. Her condition is further complicated by the fact that Stockard has sickle cell anemia, which affects the shape of her red blood cells.
Her family wants her to return home to the United States. “We need her home because this is just not a good circumstance,” her aunt, Kimberley Watkins, said. “This is just not a good situation.”
Family members don’t believe she’s receiving the best care in Jamaica but the costs of a medical flight from the island to the US are not cheap (around $45,000) and Stockard’s insurance won’t cover it. The family tried to contact the US Embassy, but they haven’t been able to provide them with the answers they need.
Stockard’s family is raising money to get her back home.
As a result, the family launched a GoFundMe. Stockard’s sister explained that due to her being an American citizen, the first hospital made her pay out of pocket just to be seen. She also had to pay for the ambulance transport and use of a stretcher when she reached the hospital because they’d run out of beds. She explained that since the incident, Stockard has had to have two blood transfusions and is managing her sickle cell anemia with medication from home. But this is not sustainable.
The GoFundMe money would be used to help get Stockard back to the US, where she has more resources at her disposal. So far, the family has raised more than $25,000 of their $55,000 goal.
