World Scout Jamboree: A Colorado Teenager Among Patients in South Korea

Colorado Springs, CO (KDVR) — Justin and Sue Cauthen were excited to have their 14-year-old son Daniel come home to Colorado after a scary experience at the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea.

About 40,000 Scouts from around the world evacuated from the volatile coastal camp site this week as a hurricane approached, but Daniel’s American Band has already pulled out after serious problems with illness, medical care, heat, hygiene and camp conditions. They were bussed to a US military base in South Korea.

The experience was difficult for the Cauthen family.

Daniel is a longtime explorer, and Soo is from Korea, so she was excited for him to see some of the country.

“I was so proud,” said the mother, “and I was so excited about him or her.”

“So Scared” at the World Scout Jamboree

The Cauthens paid about $9,000 to send Daniel to what they expected was a major scouting event, but it didn’t take long for the pair to realize there were problems.

They say that the huge camp was set up in a swampy area that retained water. There were mosquitos, huge piles of rubbish, insufficient water basins, and there were showers that didn’t work.

In addition, when the temperatures soared, there was not enough shade or medical care for the thousands of teens who needed help, including their son.

“It was the second day when he got a heat and had to go to the clinic for the first time, and then we started getting really scared,” Justin said.

Daniel had called home. “He said I was nauseous, I was throwing up and I was exhausted,” Sue recalls.

When Daniel goes to the medical tent for the second time in the night, he tells them it is closed.

“He was so scared,” Justin said.

Daniel recovered, but the Kothen say the other teens had trouble up until the moment they moved to the military base.

“Two more collapsed due to heat injuries while loading the bus, just in his small group of only 40 people,” Justin said.

45,000 at the World Scout Jamboree

Daniel is scheduled to go home on August 13th. The family is grateful to the US team supporting the teens during this, but say they want an investigation into the way South Korean groups handled the event.

“I am not only troubled by the lack of preparation. I am troubled by how this unpreparedness has put 45,000 of the world’s future leaders at risk. So many young men and women have spent many years preparing for this, and we have to make sure that the sanctity of the World Jamboree and the Scout movement The world is intact, and the only way we can do that is if there are some tough questions being asked of some officials,” Justin said.