Katharina Buczek
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.
