known for having a blue hue in lots of fish Turtles and even mermaids the weaky Wy Springs is absolutely beautiful but its beauty comes with a price the cave that lays below is very dangerous and could only be explored by experienced divers but when a group of such divers entered the cave on the last day of March 2012 one of them 29-year-old Marson Ashley a would pay the ultimate price of death even after everything his teammates did to save him this is the tragic story of the weaky Wy incident unfortunately it's not the first time
people have died there the dangerous depth of up to 200 ft can sometimes cause the unexpected to even skill divers one time long ago Marson K told his mom barar K Mom if I ever die cave diving that's the thing I love the most any mother would be scared to hear their child talk about death at all let alone use it in a sentence that has diving in it diving alone scared most people and barbar was terrified of her son's love for diving she had heard unfortunate Tales of scuba divers losing their lives and was
afraid that her son may face the same fate nevertheless she respected his passion and she knew it was where he found peace Mrs barbar could also take comfort in the fact that her son wasn't just a daredevil who wished he could spend all his life underwater this is because because Kay also loved computers living many years in Gainesville Florida Kay worked as a network engineer in the IT department for Life South Community blood center he had been at the center for 6 years while indulging in diving Adventures on the side he was also a surfer
and had also attempted skydiving but water was where he found the most joy and he couldn't help it really his father also named Marson K had been in the Coast Guard and this is where he developed a passion for swimming surfing and fishing so when kst underwater research was looking for members Kay wasted no time in volunteering his service kst is a nonprofit that regularly makes voluntary Dives to deep places that scientists would otherwise not enter they conduct research and whatever they come up with they provide for anyone to access for free so basically Kay
was offered the opportunity to not just enjoy his Devotion to diving but also do it for a great cause kst usually operates in Florida which has over 400 underwater cave systems but the one they probably enjoy the most is the Wii Wy Spring State Park and it's obvious why this might be the case the Wii Wy which has been in existence since 1947 is the only spring in the world where you can see live mermaids to see the mermaids one had to sit in the mermaid Theater which can seat 400 people at a time this
is an attraction that usually pulls both locals and tourists in alike but the spring extends way below what tourist can see for K and other volunteer divers of cars their attraction lies in the cave system which even the mermaids won't dare approach despite their sophisticated training exploration of the weaky Wy cave system has been ongoing since 1998 however because of the high pressure at the entrance of the cave exploration was stalled until 2007 following an extended drought today due to advancements and Diving technology the cave has been further explored and entrance into it has been
much easier for divers like Kay who had wanted to explore the cave they first have to drop 75 ft from the surface of the Springs to come face to face with the scary entrance of this cave this entrance can allow only one man at a time to pass through from there they can explore as far below as 429 ft but these Dives are not as easy as it may sound the truth is according to Brett Hemphill a long-standing member of kst there's a 50/50 chance that something will go wrong whether it's equipment failure or a
human Heir so we prepare to deal with it hence the team usually prepares for weeks before making just one die but more importantly 25 members of the team are required to make this dive out of these 25 seven safety divers are required to be in the water in case anything goes wrong so on that day on March 31st 2012 five divers entered the cave K included he was well suited for the dive his scuba tank contained the right supply of air and his Regulators were working when he dove in at around 3:30 p.m. he successfully
made his way through the entrance which was usually a hard swim considering the high pressure flow of the water but this was something Kay had done many times before from there he Dove deeper into the huge cabin room 180 ft from the surface this part of the cave was a little more Twisted with several rock formations but during previous Dives materials like a white rope were placed in the narrow parts to make navigation easier usually when a diver wanted to go back to the surface all they needed to do was follow the Rope path and
would they would be fine so at 180 ft in the cavern Kay communicated to his team members that he was ready to to swim back to the surface they okayed him and he started making his Ascent by following the white rope which led up to the crevice area of the cavern just 142 ft from the surface from this point the cave Narrows and the Rope is colored orange and has a diameter of 716 in K only had to follow this orange rope up to 68 ft from the surface and his eyes would be able to
see a daylight unfortunately he didn't make it that far because something terrible happened you see as he moved upward he did so too quickly which forced air into his nostrils resulting in a terrible medical condition known as an arterial gas embolism arterial gas embolism is the stoage of blood flow to organs by the presence of bubbles in the arteries the arteries affected in this case were those in his brain and heart and the symptoms were fast and devastating these are symptoms similar to stroke which include disorientation blindness seizures loss of consciousness and paralysis K started
to exhibit some of these symptoms first he lost his ability to think properly and thus moved in the wrong direction away from the roped path he soon found himself in a tight and dangerous part of the cavern just 100 ft from the surface he couldn't move and his confusion may have made him misunderstand his situation hence leaving him to rapidly swing his head back and forth eyes wide and alert looking around with every muscle tensed for what could be the worst to happen luckily the safety divers nearby could see he was stuck in this restrictive
area and quickly swam to him to try and make a rescue but this are of the cavern was so tight that even sidemount divers couldn't just squeeze themselves through hence the safety divers couldn't pull him out of his position despite their best efforts they also tried to communicate with him with light signals and touch contact but K couldn't respond properly because of his disorientation so they quickly Dove up to the surface to alert the rescue dive team but as they left him he was soon unconscious and rapidly drawing his last breath then things would become
even more catastrophic for him during this time the rescue divers were already geared up to make the rescue they were equipped with all the necessary materials they would need for their own safety but also for K this meant they had extra masks Regulators fins and any other necessary floating gears in case Kay was lacking any in no time they dove into the cave and reached Kay's position in only 3 minutes but they were already too late as they swam closer to Kay's body they discovered his regulator was now out of his mouth and his mask
was found on his forehead due to the blockage in his heart blood could not flow to his lungs anymore and in no short time Kay was dead after checking for a pulse on K but finding none they went ahead to try to free him from his stuck position but it was such a hassle for them despite their experience with situations like this they found it hard to retrieve Kay's body as they attempted to maneuver his body out of the complicated hold they met several restrictions the gear that Kay wore also didn't help matters so they
knew they had to get rid of them first one of The Rescuers Matt vinzant reported that he was really wedged in there and we had to actually cut his gear off of him to get him out by 4:47 p.m. that same day they successfully pulled him out of the water and onto the surface where K's team members were waiting anxiously they were heartbroken to find their friend and Diving partner Dead Further review of Kay's gear revealed that his gas tank was still half full and his regulator still very much active so speculations about the cause
of death started to fly around with drowning being the main culprit the autopsy result killed every speculation by pointing to arterial air embolism as the real cause of death but what was still not clear was why K chose to make an Ascent more rapidly than he used to this could not be ascertained it's believed that something had happened down there that caused him to panic and move too quickly upward his death was obviously a huge blow to his mother who he had told about dying doing what he loved but he also left behind other loved
ones too including his father and two other sisters following his death life South where he had worked created an account online for people who knew Kay to share what they thought about him people spoke only good good things speaking on her brother's death his sister Andrea said cave diving was his passion he was kind of a daredevil people were telling stories about what an amazing por he was and what a huge heart he had this reminds me of another passionate diver that encountered an even more deadly situation a diver named Bob Thomas that became entangled
in his own equipment if you thought Kay's story was tragic wait till you see what happened to Bob
