Dandelion
I can’t say that I’m a proponent of tattoos. I could never understand the need for Rob and Dave (or anyone for that matter) to endure the unnecessary pain of a tattoo. Plus, if you get tired of it, there’s nothing you can do about it! Well, like all children, they didn’t listen to Mom and both were very creative in their choice of tattoos. I just shook my head and said, “There’s no way you’d get me to go through unnecessary pain. You guys are nuts!” But, I still applied the A&D ointment on their new tattoos; cringing the whole time.
When Dave returned from the Marshall Islands, he already had a clear picture in his mind of what he wanted to add. It took 25 hours to complete his vision. He was so proud of the final product! Once it was finished, he said to me, I’m planning to have one more tattoo in honor of you. I was surprised to hear that he wanted a dandelion with the vines wrapping around his wrist like a bracelet.
You see, when Dave was a little boy, he was always so proud to bring me a bouquet of dandelions. So, needless to say, I am proud to have a dandelion tattoo on my arm in Dave’s honor.
I’m sure I won’t get tired of it.
The BOSS company should not be allowed to get away with this. Companies can’t think that having someone sign a waver allows them to get away with gross negligence. The BOSS guides were carrying water in case of emergencies. If this was not an emergency, then what is? These “guides” were obviously not qualified to determine what an emergency is. If this company was placing people in a position where their lives would be in danger, then they should also have provided someone on the trip with medical knowledge, sufficient enough to understand what a medical emergency is. This should not be allowed to happen again.
So Dave was kidnapped, then forced at gunpoint to do this stupid personal improvement exercise with this BOSS company? Is that how he is a victim?
Does he not have any personal responsibility here? He’s totally innocent, right?
It just seems like people will bear the consequences of their actions…no matter what…whether they are good or bad.
+B
You are a brave woman… of course I already knew that from all that I have read on this site… :o) I LOVE your tattoo!!! It is beautiful, a symbol of love that you can look at anytime you want… it’s eternal just like the love for your son.
A tattoo… BIG STEP….. I’m proud of you!!!
Consider yourself {{{hugged}}} all the way from California!
This is to the guy that runs BOSS.
Josh, I have seen your shows and have marveled in your travels about the globe.
However, how could you allow anyone to lead a group of people into the arid world of the desert southwest and allow Dave Buschow to die so close to life saving water? You know that there was water to give those that were suffering but it was not offered to him.
I was involved in a heat emergency a few years back and know first hand what the life threatening signs are. To know that the staff allowed him to slip deep into any heat related emergency is totally beyond human comprehension regardless of any contract or waiver that was signed. I don’t know Dave but feel that his life was not veiwed as seriously as your need to find your “lost treasures”.
How many more people may suffer the same fate?
Please realize that no one can be treated as the same top notched trained individual as any one of your staff.
Please take a serious look at your BOSS program as it is possible that this could happen again.
BOSS does not have the legal or moral right to have an individual sign a waiver about life and death. They are not doctors. And just because someone dies, doesn’t mean that a signed release covers negligence. I am a physician and a surgeon. I have never lost a human life in the operating room. But it does happen…rarely. Surgical patients sign consent forms that specifically state “death” is a risk of surgery and anesthesia. That doesn’t mean that if someone dies, AND if negligence occurred or if care was beneath the standard of care, the physician is not responsible. Another way of looking at it is quite simple: if the guides and BOSS were prepared to have a participant sign a waiver of death, why then, pray tell, were that also not prepared to recognize when someone is dying right before their eyes. The corollary being: if you are going to have someone sign a death waiver, you damn well better be prepared to recognize the angel of death hovering, and you equally better be prepared to snatch that life back from the throws of death. If I were the attorney for the family, I would be filing a wrongful death claim. My sympathies to the Buschow family.
I cannot begin to express the depth of my sorrow for your loss. I sit here reading this article and I am just horrified that anyone could have been so cruel to another fellow human being. It isn’t enough that they witheld the water that they carried for “emergencies” — ha! What a joke! But they withheld even allowing Dave to fill his bottle when obviously Dave KNEW HE NEEDED IT!!! This was involuntary manslaughter, and I would like to say to those who question “Where was Dave’s responsibility in this? He signed up for a Survival Camp not a death march!!! Idiots!! Pat, as one mother to another I am sitting here with tears running from my eyes and may I say to you….DO NOT GIVE UP!!! Get them and make sure they are never, ever able to do this to someone elses child!
My heart and prayers are with you all!
You are the coolest mom ever. I really love so much of what you have expressed on here. I am a mother of 4 and I have already learned so much from you. I think what happened is terrible. To the person above who left the harsh message, they may not know what it’s like to lose a child. Anyway, you’re still brave to let people post things on here even if they’re negative. One thing I read in the news article is that Dave DID ask for water. From what I know of these things, even in the military, if you ask for help they have to give it to you. My husband is Army and they have people drop out of excercises all the time. That is because individuals know their personal limits. Dave was brave though. Totally brave. What happened was completely wrong, and I am positive that they should be prosecuted for it. What happens I don’t know, but I DO know that you are dealing with things in a very inspiring way. I came to this website from reading the news article, but I will come back to keep learning from you and your family.
My heart and prayers go out to your family. May God be with you.
It is really a shame the comments many have been making here and at digg.com. Human Nature has never changed and never will.
I read almost everything on the memorial site (found it on a recent yahoo news article) and blog. He sounds like he was a cool guy. RIP Dave.
I read the story in the Orange County Register today, and if what they reported is true, the people who operated that course have to be held accountable for what they did. They represented themselves as experts and as guides, and their excuses for what happened are that they have experience with others who struggled and made it, and that the participants signed a waiver? Outrageous. The fool who offered the previous comment people bearing the consequences of their actions ignores the fact that the participants expected the leaders to act with good judgment and to have expertise in necessary areas to guide people properly. Why don’t you hear about this sort of thing happening in the unquestionably grueling training that special forces soldiers go through? Because the leaders know the signs of trouble, and intervene when it is necessary. The real fools are those who tout the virtues of exceeding our imaginary limits when they have no sense of the very real limits that we all have, and how dangerous it is to exceed those limits.
Beavis, you are clearly a Butthead. With Dave’s dying breath, as he lay face down in the dirt, unable to move, he begged the instructor to get water for him. The reply was that he wouldn’t leave Dave, when all he had to do is reach into his pack for a water bottle that Dave would have gladly filled for him in the cave. He might as well have put that gun to Dave’s head and pulled the trigger.
Patricia, cute tat. You still amaze me sometimes!
I am absolutely appalled at the criminal negligence of the BOSS school and outraged by their total denial of any responsibility for what they allowed to happen to Dave. Your family should sue BOSS and its staff not just because of Dave but to prevent this from happening to anyone else. Because they take no responsibility for this, it is very likely it will happen again and that is totally unacceptable. May God be with you, encourage and support you.
As an Army veteran with three tours of duty in Iraq and Afganistan, it is beyond my comprehension why those instructors would allow this tragedy to happen. During all my training, dangerous as it was, safety was paramount. No decision was reached, no action taken without the risks being assesed and actions taken to minimze the dangers. As my instructor during SERE told us……water is better in you than out. As i understand it, he tried to do exactly as his training taught him yet was stopped by the staff. Thats not training, thats torture. May God grant him entrance to Valhalla….He fought to the Last! Hooah!
I heard about this too late. I’m so sorry for your loss. Dave was a person who always remembered funny things from our childhood and especially from our time in Holdrum together. I know we weren’t as close as he was with most of you but every time I would run into Dave he always greeted me with a smile and a hearty handshake and would ask how everything was. I will miss him.
I came across your site looking for a dandelion tattoo. I am getting one this Sunday in memory of my daughter who died last August at the age of 18. I was touched to read that Dave’s mother also had one in his memory. Similarly it is not something I would have ever done, but my daughter Sarah loved dandelions and had a tattoo of one. So on her 19th birthday I will remember her by getting one. I will use the photo from your site to bring to the artist. Thank you. And many sympathies from one mother to another. Kerry Malawista