A memorial, as told by his loving family.
Carlos Alberto Winkel died on March 26th 2017, at the age of 33, from the result of shallow water blackout. Carlos and his girlfriend migrated in February 2016 from the Netherlands to Curacao, his beloved island where he was born, to start a career as a lawyer in a Caribbean law firm. He was an experienced scuba diver, holding all licenses accept Dive Master, and loved being under water, especially in the ocean around Curacao. He was always trying to get the best out of his life and enjoyed it fully, together with his family, friends and colleagues. On March 26th, after a beautiful day with a lot of activities, Carlos and his girlfriend went over to a friend’s house, to have a last drink and take a dive in their small swimming pool. As he always used to do, Carlos did a breath holding drill by lying motionless in the water with his head down, while his girlfriend and his friends were with him in the pool. One of the friends became a bit uncomfortable with the drill and moved to touch him. It then became clear that he was not moving at all anymore. They immediately got him out of the pool and started CPR, but it was already too late. A few days later, the Curacao coroner reported that Carlos had most likely died from shallow water blackout, something we had never heard of before.
Carlos will always be remembered by his family, friends and colleagues as a wonderful person, of whom one of his colleagues said: “Carlos was smarter, he worked harder, and he enjoyed life more than most of us do”.