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6 The Virgin Islands Daily News
VIRGIN ISLANDS
Friday, November 9, 2012

Boat captain arrested in 2011 death of parasailor

By LOU MATTEI
Daily News Staff

ST. THOMAS — Boat captain Kyle Coleman was arrested Wednesday on a charge that he caused the 2011 death of a parasailor through misconduct, negligence and inattention to his duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday.

Coleman, the captain of the motor boat Turtle, was conducting parasailing excursions just south of Water Island on Nov. 15, 2011, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Bernice Kraftcheck and her daughter, Danielle Haese, were hoisted into the air for the parasail ride as wind conditions were deteriorating.

"The strong winds and a weak tow-line caused the tow-line to break, resulting in the parasail separating from the vessel and the two women falling into the water," the statement reads. "The wind then propelled the parasail, with the women still attached, at a very high rate of speed causing the death of Kraftcheck and serious injuries to Haese."

The U.S. Coast Guard "aggressively investigated" the accident, which led to Coleman's arrest and the surrender of his merchant mariner's license in June, according to a prepared statement by Capt. Drew Pearson, the Coast Guard's San Juan commander.

"The Coast Guard takes safety at sea very seriously, and will ensure that any mariner who causes another's death through misconduct, negligence, and inattention to his duties is held accountable in a court of law," Pearson said in the release.

A medical examiner pronounced Kraftcheck, 60, of Round Lake, Ill., dead at the West Indian Co. dock the afternoon of the accident. Haese, 34 at the time, of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., was hospitalized overnight at Schneider Hospital.

The women were passengers aboard the Celebrity Eclipse and bought a parasailing shore-excursion operated by Caribbean Watersports and Tours.

The one-count grand jury indictment charging Coleman was not available on the District Court's online court records database as of Thursday night.

Coleman, 32, made his first appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller and was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond, according to the release. He is scheduled to be arraigned in District Court on Nov. 14, one day shy of the one-year anniversary of Kraftcheck's death.

If convicted, Coleman could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

— Contact reporter Lou Mattei at 714-9124 or email lm

Nelson tells Luis board that hospital is still falling short of standards

By JOY BLACKBURN
Daily News Staff

ST. CROIX — Luis Hospital Chief Executive Jeff Nelson updated board members about the hospital's status with federal regulators during a meeting Thursday night.

Luis remains under the regulatory microscope with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the hospital's certification from the federal agency is potentially at stake.

CMS certification indicates a hospital meets certain standards, and if a hospital is decertified, it is no longer eligible to receive payments from the federal agency for services the hospital provides to Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Revenues from CMS patients represent about 60 percent of the hospital's income, Nelson said Thursday.

The hospital currently is operating under two settlement agreements with CMS, aimed at fixing problems found by inspectors from the federal agency during inspections in recent years.

One of the agreements involves the entire hospital.

Nelson on Thursday said that the hospital recently had received a statement of deficiencies from CMS after inspectors conducted a follow-up, focused survey in September as part of the monitoring on that agreement.

Inspectors had found some improvements, "but not enough," Nelson said Thursday.

The hospital has submitted a plan of correction for the deficiencies, but the federal agency said that the plan was not creative or detailed enough, Nelson told the board.

Hospital officials will work on the plan of correction, and once CMS approves it, the elements of the plan will be part of the overall settlement agreement, Nelson said after the meeting.

Luis has until Feb. 13 to meet the federal agency's mandates for improvement or it potentially will lose CMS certification — although Nelson said the surveys could come sooner.

"We may see CMS here as early as mid-December," Nelson said.

The hospital also is in the process of temporarily shutting down its psychiatric unit for 90 days in an effort to make improvements in that unit, officials said. Luis is working with a hospital in the United States to come to an agreement to temporarily transfer its patients there, officials said.

The plan to temporarily close the unit prompted considerable discussion at the meeting. Some advocates for the mentally ill, as well as some physicians, raised questions about the wisdom of the move.

Board members said it was necessary to make improvements to the unit so that the hospital can keep the unit open in the long-term.

The other settlement agreement Luis Hospital has with CMS is for the dialysis unit.

The hospital has met the federal standards for that unit, but the settlement agreement remains in place because CMS wanted to ensure that the positive changes were sustained, Nelson said.

That settlement agreement has been extended once, and Nelson told board members Thursday that he anticipates it will be extended again for further monitoring, although he did not know for how long.

In other action, the board discussed and approved reports and a variety of recommendations from its Finance Committee. It also approved a policy related to public access to board meeting minutes. Board chairwoman Kye Walker said the document puts the board's current practices into a policy.

— Contact Joy Blackburn at 714-9145 or email jblackburn@dailynews.vi.

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V.I. National Park to offer free admission to Trunk Bay

Daily News Staff

In recognition of Veterans Day, the National Park Service has designated Saturday, Sunday and Monday as a "fee-free weekend."

All visitors to National Park sites in the territory, including Trunk Bay on St. John, will be admitted free.

Trunk Bay Beach is one the most-visited beaches on St. John, and is home to an underwater trail, where swimmers are able to snorkel over a reef and read plaques identifying coral and fish below.

To avoid over-crowding of the Trunk Bay parking lot, National Park personnel are encouraging visitors to carpool or take a safari taxi.

For more information, call Andrea Joseph at 776-6201 ext. 249.

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