Sad Update: In The American Statesman this morning: Shannon Leigh Lewis, the Austin spoken-word poet, has died as a result of a diving accident. A spokesman for the Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. confirmed Wednesday that she died at 9:40 p.m. Monday. The coma she had entered after a June 14 cave diving accident near Ginnie Springs, Fla., turned irreversible earlier that day, which led to conflicting reports about her death. An Alachua County, Fla. medical examiner's report is pending. A memorial service will be held 6 p.m. Wednesday at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Austin.
Scott Nicholson Broker/Waterboy Discovery Realty Group 512-947-2688 KW Commercial www.DiscoveryAustin.com ----- Original Message ---- From: RD Milhollin <[email protected]> To: mark gee <[email protected]> Cc: List: TexasCavers <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2008 8:51:43 AM Subject: RE: [Texascavers] Florida cave diving incident, Austin, TX victim www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/28/0628roundup.html CENTRAL TEXASDIGEST Austin Poetry Slam regular in coma in Florida COMPILED FROM STAFF REPORTS Saturday, June 28, 2008 AUSTIN Poet hurt in scuba accident Shannon Leigh, a fixture for years on the local spoken-word poetry scene, was in critical condition at a Florida hospital Friday after a scuba diving accident earlier this month, Texas Youth Word Collective co-director Ron Horne said. Horne said Leigh, 20, was scuba diving near Gainesville on June 14 when the incident occurred. According to a story in The Gainesville Sun, Leigh was swimming with two other divers but returned alone to the entrance of a cave to try to resolve a problem with her equilibrium. A diving instructor not in her group found her unconscious moments later and brought her to the surface with the help of another diver, the newspaper said. Horne said Leigh started in spoken-word poetry in Austin when she was about 13. Since then she has been featured in HBO's Def Poetry Slam, and she placed third last year in the National Poetry Slam, Horne said. She moved to Atlanta in 2006 to attend Georgia State University , Horne said. Horne said Leigh was showing signs of recovery but was still in a coma at the hospital. Anyone who wants to send get-well wishes can visit www.getwellshannon.com. ________________________________ From:mark gee [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Florida cave diving incident, Austin , TX victim I can not pull up the article. Who was the diver who is in a comma.
