Remembering Tamar Kaplan ’14

By The Forum | January 8, 2013 at 10:32 am | News | 15 comments | |

On January 6, 2013, just before midnight, CMC junior Tamar Kaplan passed away due to injuries resulting from a car accident while traveling in Bolivia. Kaplan and her close friend and classmate, Haley Patoski ’14, were touring Bolivia in a Land Rover after their semesters abroad when they got into an accident that left Kaplan in critical condition. Fortunately, Patoski was largely unharmed, though badly bruised.

According to information released on Kaplan’s CaringBridge website, doctors initially reported a broken femur and clavicle, and partial collapse of the right lung. During the attempt to transport Kaplan to La Paz, Bolivia’s capital city, her condition worsened, and her lungs began filling with fluid. Kaplan lost consciousness and was brought to a hospital in Oruro, Bolivia, three hours away from La Paz. After putting her on a ventilator, doctors further determined that she had extensive damage to both lungs, broken ribs, and more broken bones than originally thought.

On Saturday, January 5, Kaplan’s father, Dr. Danny Kaplan, flew to Potosi, where Kaplan was first admitted for care. He accompanied her on the ride to La Paz.

Late on January 6, Kaplan’s family released the following journal entry by way of the CaringBridge website: “Dear Friends, Tamar never regained consciousness, and passed away peacefully just before midnight on January 6th. Her dad was with her. Thank you for all your support and love, Maya, Danny, Liat, and Netta.”

Kaplan’s CaringBridge website is a resource for all who wish to stay connected with the Kaplan family, offer condolences, or share stories about Kaplan’s life.

On campus, Kaplan was a brilliant student, as well as a member of the PPE program, a Mock Trial champion, a McKenna Scholar, and a humanitarian. Kaplan battled social injustice in high school through a Minneapolis non-profit called The Advocates for Human Rights, then later at CMC through her involvement with SOURCE (Student Outreach Utilizing Resources and Community Exchange), where she served as student manager.

Kaplan wrote home from Ecuador earlier this semester, in a piece published on the Forum titled “Letters to Home: What I (Don’t) Miss About Green Beach.”

The breadth of Kaplan’s undergraduate activities demonstrates how strangely adept she was at nearly every activity she undertook.  Her many achievements are praised in full in an email message sent to the CMC community by Dean of the Faculty Gregory Hess.  The absence of such a bright personality and well-respected student on CMC’s campus will be sorely felt.  Testaments to Kaplan’s humor, charm, intelligence, and good nature dominated social media on Monday, a sign that Kaplan’s shining character will be deeply missed.

The email sent to the student body is posted below in its entirety:

Dear Members of the CMC Community,

It is with great sadness that I must inform all of you about the loss of a wonderful, young member of our community, junior Tamar Kaplan ’14, who died Sunday night in a Bolivian hospital due to complications from an automobile accident. Tamar had been on a private tour in rural Bolivia when the accident occurred.

Editor’s Note: The Forum staff would like to offer its condolences to Tamar’s friends and family. We entreat students to visit the CaringBridge website, whether to leave a story, make a donation, or simply pay respects. Additionally, we welcome students to share uplifting stories about Tamar’s life by posting them in the comment section below. Some stories may be compiled for a later tribute.  She was a girl well worth knowing, with a life well worth remembering.