This Past June, Twelve-Year-Old Charlie Buhl Survived A Crocodile Attack While On Vacation In Cancun
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In June, Jennifer Buhl and her family traveled to Cancun from Philadelphia for a relaxing summer vacation. They had been at Club Med, a four-star resort, for just over one week.
From water activities during the day to shows on the pool deck at night, all was perfect. That was until June 18th, when a crocodile attacked Buhl’s twelve-year-old son Charlie.
“Club Med is different from most resorts in that everything they do encourages meeting and mingling amongst the guests and the resort’s activity guides,” Buhl wrote on Happy Hour Headshot.
There, she recounts in detail the moments leading up to the attack, the terrifying discovery of her son, and the long and painful recovery process.
While staying in Cancun, Buhl’s sons Charlie and Johnny were a part of the Kids Club/Teen Club.
Most evenings, Charlie would eat with his friends before meeting back up with his mom for the nightly pool deck show.
“It was around 8:30 p.m. when we sat down at the main restaurant,” Buhl wrote, “At around 8:45 p.m., Johnny left with one of his friends to go to his Kids Club performance by the pool deck.”
Buhl and her friend, Maria, had just returned from visiting the chocolate fondue fountain before receiving the gut-wrenching news.
One of Charlie’s friends from the Kids Club, Louis, and his father found Buhl at her dining table. “The dad said something like, ‘Jennifer, I believe your son has been attacked by a crocodile,'” Buhl recalled, “The horror in that moment and over the next twenty seconds continues to haunt me.”
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Buhl barreled her way through the restaurant and out to the pool deck in a panic. Questions flooded her mind: “Which son? What will I do if he’s dead? Will I kill myself?”
Seconds later, her first sight was Charlie- lying bare-chested and crying- next to the lagoon stairs.
“I dove on him and covered his body with mine. I remember being comforted that he was still warm,” Buhl wrote, “I immediately began crying out to God. Pleading ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, please.'”
While trying to console her son, grappling with questions of life or death, and trying to find an ambulance, Buhl had a village behind her.
So many people who she had met at Club Med all rallied to help her son Charlie find help. They also banded together to pray in his name.
“The prayer accounts will emerge as a constant theme over the next several days and weeks,” Buhl said, “I believe that well over a thousand humans from all over the world uttered please to God on Charlie’s behalf.”
After waiting thirty minutes for an ambulance, Buhl emerged outside the resort to darkness; there was no ambulance in sight.
“I remember going ballistic and screaming, ‘Where is the ambulance?'” she recalled.
They walked down the drive and finally saw an ambulance parked with its lights off. At the time, Buhl thought this was protocol- that private hotels call private ambulances in order to not alarm guests. However, she found out later the Cancun hotels do not call 911.
As Buhl arrived at the hospital with Charlie and Johnny, she was understandably shaken to her core. She did not find out the details of the attack until later on.
“Charlie was with the Kids Club/Teen Club who enjoyed all the activities Club Med had to offer- trapeze, sailing snorkeling,” Buhl wrote, “On June 18th around 8;45 p.m., the Kids Club had organized a game of hide-and-seek.” This is where the evening took a turn.
After playing a few rounds together, Charlie and his friend Cyrus hid together on the pool deck stairs. These stairs led down to the lagoon, which guests used to board boats.
“According to both their accounts, they sat on the middle step, their legs on the step below with their feet not hanging over the water,” Buhl recounted, “Both of them were aware crocodiles lived in the lagoon, but what none of us knew was that crocs can and will jump up out of the water to grab you and drag you in.”
All of a sudden, Charlie was no longer sitting next to Cyrus. A crocodile had grabbed him by the leg and pulled him under the water with no sign of relenting. Charlie tried to grab hold of the stairs and Cyrus grabbed Charlie’s arm. It was about thirty seconds until adults arrived to help.
The stairs where the two hid had a short metal railing, about three feet high, with a small gate. The gate was open, with no lock in sight regardless. The area also had no posted warning signs or lights.
“That night and the next day, the guests were furious,” Buhl said, “The following day, the pool was closed and Club Med’s management team- along with government officials- spent the day scanning the resort.” Following the incident, Club Med supposedly invested two hundred thousand dollars into securing the lagoon. Signs were also posted and a security guard was placed on the pool deck.
Since that night, Buhl and her son Charlie have weathered a terrifying recovery process. From the night Charlie entered the hospital, the doctors were unsure how much damage had been done. After Dr. Solis performed Charlie’s first surgery, he said, “I’m happy with how the surgery went, but there is still much we have to be concerned about.”
That night, Charlie received a blood transfusion after losing nearly half of his blood supply in the attack and subsequent surgery. Of the three main arteries in Charlie’s leg, one’s “branches” had been cut.
The others were miraculously intact. A flap of Charlie’s flesh was also re-attached, but there were concerns over recirculation and tissue survival. The most considerable concern, though, was the risk of a bacterial infection.
“It’s not if there is bacteria inside of Charlie, it’s what kind,” Buhl recalled what Dr. Solis had told her.
Every three days, surgical cleanings of the wound took place in order to minimize a bacterial infection. Charlie also underwent fifteen hyperbaric chamber treatments, where oxygen is infused into the body. The Buhl family spent nearly four weeks in Cancun as Dr. Solis continued to treat Charlie.
“It’s been over three months since the accident and we are now back in Philly. The last scab came off at twelve weeks, but the wound is still slightly chafing,” Buhl wrote, “He is now walking with an awkward gait, like he has a wooden leg, since he does not yet have full range of motion or strength.”
It is expected that Charlie will eventually to return to running, jumping and playing soccer just like most other children his age. Still, Dr. Solis warned Buhl that “the body will never be the same after trauma like this.”
Throughout this terrifying situation, Buhl found hope both in God and in the form of new friends.
“While I am alone in parenting my boys, I never felt alone this summer,” Buhl thanked her village, “To all of you who played a part, to those who directly saved Charlie’s life acting in wisdom and courage and to all of you around the world who prayed from your spirit on Charlie’s behalf, thank you.”
Nonetheless, Buhl’s final wish is for change in Cancun.
“I believe that something should be done. Charlie’s was the third attack in the region that month, and there was another shortly after him,” Buhl wrote, “And while Club Med may have secured their resort, what is compelling the other hotels, restaurants and establishments across the region to do the same?”
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