Tour guide dies at 62 from injuries

Injuries suffered while snorkeling near the Mexican resort of Rocky Point claimed the life Thursday night of popular tour director Charlene White, 62.

She apparently never regained full consciousness from her spinal injuries, but her son Peter White said “she had light in her eyes and she smiled at me” before she died at University of Arizona Medical Center.

Charlene White had just put on her snorkeling mask and was swimming near the stern of the boat Fiesta Cruiser when a man came down a slide from its upper deck into the water, landing on top of her.

She suffered a broken neck.

Son Peter White saw the accident, swam to the bottom and brought her to the surface.

He immediately gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, an act he repeated at times during a frantic trip that included a speed-boat trip to a Rocky Point, two ambulance rides across northern Sonora and Southern Arizona and a helicopter flight from Ajo to Tucson.

Peter White, his father Bill White and her brother Mike Aksamit talked some about their loss Friday morning.

They said there will be a memorial service later for Charlene White, known as Char.

Peter White had recently moved from Wisconsin to Green Valley- Sahuarita where he was helping his mother conduct tours and learning the business. She had been in the tour business in Chicago before moving here about nine years ago.

Bird Island, where the accident happened, is about 25 miles southeast of Rocky Point. The speed boat was commandeered for the emergency trip to Rocky Point where Peter White said a series of errors and missteps delayed the rush to complete medical treatment.

He said there two nurses who were at Bird Island, and they helped during the speed boat ride to shore.

At a Rocky Point hospital, he said, personnel there wanted to stop emergency CPR treatment for his mother. “They didn’t want me to breathe for her,” he said

Then he was prevented from leaving with her for about three hours until their passports and money to pay the medical bill arrived from the cruise ship.

They needed the passports to re-enter the United States at Lukeville.

The helicopter had been dispatched from Phoenix and planned to take Charlene and Peter White there for help, but he persuaded them to go to Tucson closer to her Green Valley - Sahuarita home.

Mike Aksamit said of his sister, “She made a lot of people happy,” with her tours and her bubbly personality.

Peter White said he hoped to continue his mother’s work and to conduct tours she had already scheduled.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749