Bahamas: Missing Female Diver

[pilot fish]

What are the penalities for a DM losing a diver, or diver injury, due to DM negligence? Has it ever happened that a DM lost their cert due to improper dive supervision?

 

[Splitlip]

I agree with you 100%. The idea of teaching students over a weekend and dumping them in the ocean on a drift dive in 60 ft. of water is terrifying to me. That's why I have no desire to become an instructor these days. I'm not proclaiming myself to be any kind of dive expert but here is now I learned to dive: I took Scuba in college. First I took lifeguard training in college. It was a BEAR. Then I took Scuba from the same instructor. I had class for 1.5 hours twice a week for 15 weeks. Now I know that's at the other end of the spectrum, but what a joke these weekend dive courses are. PADI made it worse by allowing the course online. We should probably take this thread offshoot elsewhere.

I have seldom seen a student churned out of one of these classes who is ready.

Something which really twists my noodle is the fact that there are classes being certified at the BHB with all of their open water dives being conducted there.

The Blue Heron Bridge (BHB) is neat little shore dive inside the Palm Beach inlet. Actually in the intracoastal, done at slack high tide. It is very popular with instructors, usually for the first 2 open water dives in 13ft of water.

I go there on occasion with a near empty bottle when I want to do weight checks with a new suit or otherwise check out a new piece of gear.

I have been there on more than one occasion where an instructor has taken his class down to 13 ft done some skills, surfaced, chatted and repeated this 3 more times than congratulated them on achieving their certifications.
If the students stay in the area, their next dive will likely be a 70-80 ft drift.

 

[Splitlip]

Do you mean "Advanced" as in "AOW" or "Advanced" as in "Advanced Nitrox/Decompression or Cave" ?

If AOW, that's absolutely terrifying.

Terry

Here is a piece penned by Dan Volker for The South Florida Dive Journal when he did a Hole dive.

DEEP DIVE

 

[mrlipis]

I wouldn't take you on a 140' dive at all. Deep dives require well trained buddy pairs, not some random pairing of strangers, regardless of certification.

I would consider that good diligence on your part but unfortunately there are professionals out there that wouldn't think twice about it.

Absolutely. If she said "I just had a stroke" the dive op would have to be insane to let her dive. However, since she was on the dive, I'm assuming she said "no" to all the medical questions.

In any case, the woman didn't die from a medical problem, she died because the DM failed to maintain appropriate buddy distance, let her get away then failed to drag her back to the surface even after catching up with her twice (if I read the thread correctly).

I think it is safe to assume that she did answer NO to all the questions, my point being that if a condition like this contributed to her behavior the law would find Ms. Wood the culpable party. I am not defending the DMs actions or lack of but how selfish of any diver to put another person in that position. Do you think this DMs life has just changed forever?

Glad to see Meg's posts again and to hear that an investigator is talking to her. Hope we can get some more details and facts.

 

[Amazz]

Advanced Open Water.

 

[alohagal]

The victim's medical history was irreverent in this case. Simply keeping the victim from descending far below the planned depth, and surfacing if behavioral or medical issues were seen would have prevented this fatality.

This requires nothing more than good buddy skills, which I would hope is a requirement for a DM card.

Any reasonable DM would assume that any person who requests or is assigned a DM as a personal buddy is going to require a significant level of attention.

Terry

I doubt there is any doctor in the world who would give the okay for a 68 year old woman, who had a previous stroke history only a month before, to go scuba diving. And for lack of a better way of putting it...it is "suicidal" on that persons part to do so. Especially to depth.
Her odds are good to have another stroke under pressure. And if she was stroking at the time, confusion level is high and a person can be combative and extremely confused. I think it is a very relevant issue. And at the very least many people are often depressed after a stroke. I know I would not want to knowingly be the DM of an other diver with a health history like that. And not knowing...even worse. IMHO.

 

[Riger]

If this has been established already, then I apologise in advance...... Do we know what the certification level and experience of Mrs Wood is/was?

Best Regards
Richard

 

[Riger]

Here is a link that puts this discussion and the "other one" (Cayman) into a different perspective.

YouTube - Diving Accident Potential For A Bad Outcome Bahamas 12/12/08

Best Regards
Richard

 

[fisheyeview]

If this has been established already, then I apologise in advance...... Do we know what the certification level and experience of Mrs Wood is/was?

Best Regards
Richard

No answer to this yet.

 

[fisheyeview]

I doubt there is any doctor in the world who would give the okay for a 68 year old woman, who had a previous stroke history only a month before, to go scuba diving. And for lack of a better way of putting it...it is "suicidal" on that persons part to do so. Especially to depth.
Her odds are good to have another stroke under pressure. And if she was stroking at the time, confusion level is high and a person can be combative and extremely confused. I think it is a very relevant issue. And at the very least many people are often depressed after a stroke. I know I would not want to knowingly be the DM of an other diver with a health history like that. And not knowing...even worse. IMHO.

50% of stoke victims suffer from depression. The rate of depression is higher among female stroke victims.