Minnesota pastor dies after cruise ship pool incident
Stephen Junker underwent emergency spinal surgery in Italy before being transferred to a Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Stephen Junker, a pastor at Chippewa Lutheran Church in Minnesota, died Sept. 5 after an incident involving a swimming pool aboard a cruise ship, according to a fundraising page created in his honor.
The GoFundMe account said Junker was discovered face down and unresponsive after falling into one of the ship’s pools. The Italian Coast Guard transported him to a hospital in Naples, where doctors found severe compression of his spinal cord in the upper portion of his neck, according to the account.
Junker underwent emergency spinal surgery on Aug. 17 and was diagnosed with tetraplegia. His family said the doctors in Italy were making their best effort but that the facility was not adequately equipped to treat his injuries. The family emphasized that the difficulties were not the result of negligence.
About a week later, Junker was transferred from Italy to a Mayo Clinic in his home state of Minnesota. Further testing there determined that his injuries could not be treated, according to the fundraising page. Junker died roughly two weeks after the transfer.