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Diving Accident Kills Man Who Save Woman
September 7th, 2008
A MAN who saved a young woman when she was crushed by a falling tree nine years ago and then married her has died in a north Queensland diving accident.
Brendan Jolly, 30, a former Sunshine Coast builder, was commercial-diving with an air hose near Green Island, off Cairns, on Thursday when it is believed his oxygen supply failed.
In 1999, Mr Jolly and Jennifer Dossel made headlines when 16-year-old Jennifer was left paralysed by a gum tree which split and fell on her while she and Brendan were watching surf in Noosa National Park on the Sunshine Coast.
Mr Jolly, then aged 21, fought through broken branches to find Jennifer and cradled her in his arms, supporting her back and keeping her from losing consciousness until paramedics arrived.
A romance developed as Brendan visited Jennifer daily in hospital and a rehabilitation clinic over the coming months, and they married in 2001.
Jennifer Jolly used a wheelchair and continued to battle nerve pain, but after several years of trying to get pregnant, celebrated the birth of son Rhys in 2006.
On Thursday, Mr Jolly was working with his brother Bradley at Arlington Reef, collecting fish for aquariums.
Police said Brendan Jolly had been diving using an air hose connected to a compressor, while Bradley Jolly and three others were on board the boat Shearwater II. The crew noticed there were no air bubbles in the water around Mr Jolly's air hose and then saw the compressor was not running, police said.
After they tugged on the air hose and got no response, the crew jumped into the water and pulled Mr Jolly to the surface.
They administered CPR for three hours as the boat headed to Cairns, but he could not be revived.
Brendan's family yesterday told of a man with a giant heart, who loved the water and was a loving husband to Jennifer and devoted father to Rhys, 2.
"He was finally living his dream," a family member said.
"He had a beautiful wife and a son that he simply adored and he was able to dive regularly on the Great Barrier Reef along with his best mates."
Family members gathered yesterday to comfort each other and penned a special tribute to Brendan, which they provided to The Sunday Mail.
"Rhys is the spitting image of his dad and they loved to go everywhere together. Whether it was working on the boat, playing games or packing fish, they were inseparable," the family said.
"Brendan was an amazing person . . . . loving and caring. He was always there when you needed him – the type of person that once you met him you wanted to be his friend.
"You realised that he was a very special person whether you had known him for two seconds or your whole life. He had many fine qualities that were part of his personality."
They said Brendan always had a love for anything to do with water, whether surfing, fishing or diving.
Mr Jolly had been working with Bradley and other siblings in their business, Oz Reef Connections, in Cairns for two years, since moving from the Sunshine Coast.
He lost his mother Sandra to cancer in 2005.
Police and Workplace Health and Safety are still investigating the accident.
Another person working in the aquarium industry said it was standard practice for those diving for aquarium fish to use an air hose connected to a compressor.
source: couriermail
