Diver Dies of heart attack in Cabo Feb.18th 2013

[RJP]

I think you're mistaken in your reading. Do you read Spanish? The headline is
Turista canadiense sufre ataque al corazón cuando buceaba en playa El Chileno
which, literally means "Canadian tourist suffers heart attack while diving at El Chileno beach"

The google translation is:
Canadian tourist suffers heart attack while snorkeling in Chileno Beach

The article does not mention any other case of a Canadian, or anyone else for that matter.

Yup - I corrected while you were typing. I thought you were referring to original post.

 

[rjk75]

So the one thing that sounds certain is that the deceased suffered a heart attack while underwater. The local coroner determined that from an autopsy, right?

 

[Quero]

Yes, according to the reports we've seen, it was apparently a heart attack at a very shallow depth. I have no idea on what basis the coroner made the determination--all I have done is paraphrase the news reports. We all know how reporters get the details wrong, so unless we hear from somebody close to the events, I guess we won't learn whether it was a scuba tour or a snorkel tour, whether the victim was male or female (It seems more than likely that it was a male named Robert Allen Wilkerson rather than Roberta Allen Wilkerson), and how the victim presented.

 

[BRT]

In the actual news account
Turista muere en Playa El Chileno | Colectivo Pericú
it's clear throughout that the victim was a woman. In summary, a boat took out a pair of tourists visiting from Alaska--a 60-year old mother and her 27-year old son. When they were at about 8 meters deep, the guide noticed that the woman's mask was filled with water, and he took her to the surface where she was unresponsive. The Coroner determined the cause of death as acute myocardial infarction. What isn't clear is that they were on scuba. The news report only mentions snorkelling (though it says the woman was wearing a "black diver's suit"), and of course it's perfectly possible to dive to a depth of 8 meters while snorkelling.

This account says that they went snorkeling, and were put in the water at a depth of 8 meters. Says they were from Alaska. It says it was a lady, 60 years old. Her and her son (27 years old) were from Alaska. It does not say she was underwater 8 meters.

Brian

 

[Quero]

Well, it does say

...se introdujeron al mar a una profundidad de ocho metros metros aproximadamente...

And as it's a reflexive verb, the actual translation would be that they "introduced themselves into the sea to a depth of approximately eight meters" rather than that they "were put in".
But I doubt that's an important consideration anyway.

 

[nimoh]

regardless of scuba diving, snorkelling or freediving. I don't see how a death resulting from a heart attack underwater can be blamed on the dive op.

I understand from the OP that there are other incidents that I am not familiar with, but this one seems to have been an unfortunately accident.

 

[cdm1]

Ok people: I don´t want to be disrespectful to anybody in anyway but i am so concerned about all this comments, all i read is if the person was snorkeling or scubadiving, if the person was from alaska or canada, if it was the guide´s fault or the diver´s fault, if it was a man or a woman, if it was a heart attack or it was something else, if the coroner already made an statemant or else , if the people here in cabo are trainned to handle this type of situations, if they are mcdonals divers or they´re certified dive-masters. If it was this or it was that,,,,,,,,,,,,,, common guys a human being passed away, yes a person died, a diver, the third one in a one year period,,,,lets not mention the dive shop the diver was diving with. The point is if we the people who make or living out from this activity don´t do nothing about it, this is going to keep happening, yes we are going to be killing people. How????? If we do not follow the diving standars if we don´t act based on our trainnig if we don´t manage and handle diving accidents the way they suppose to be handled if we just don´t do nothing about it we will be reading some more of this posts here @ scubaboard accidents and incidents forum.
Another thing here in mexico we don´t have the right people to do diving accident investigation , they don´t have the right equipment to do the necessary tests to the air bottles, neither the coroner´s office has the trainned personnel or legal system is a joke, you can fix legal problems with cash$$$$$$$$$$$ i guess here in mexico corruption is just human nature,,,,,,,,,,,that´s all i can say and once again sorry for being so
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[td]forthright and my apologiez if i touched some fibres!
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---------- Post added February 20th, 2013 at 09:28 PM ----------

My condolences to the wilkinson´s family! R.i.p.

 

[chillyinCanada]

cdm1 - it's my belief that the posters have not been denying the gravity of a death, rather they have been trying to determine whether or not it was a death while on scuba. If that was established as indeed the case, we'd then be trying to find out if it was heart attack, pulmonary edema or another tank of bad air.

 

[cdm1]

cdm1 - it's my belief that the posters have not been denying the gravity of a death, rather they have been trying to determine whether or not it was a death while on scuba. If that was established as indeed the case, we'd then be trying to find out if it was heart attack, pulmonary edema or another tank of bad air.

1.- i can assure you it was scubadiving 100% positive, i live here in cabo, where it happened, i know the facts.

2.- again here in cabo the coroner can say whatever he wants, they are not specialized in diving accidents besides how can anybody go in to the coroners office and change the result he has given out, to the real cause of death if he doesn´t really know it him self,,,,get it?


SO STOP WONDERING IT WAS A SCUBADIVING ACCIDENT, IT WAS A MAN, IT WAS AT 24 FEET, THE DIVEMASTER LEADING THE TOUR HASN´T BEEN DIVING FOR LONGER THAN A YEAR, NOBODY KNOWS THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT THE CAUSE OF DEATH, WHY I AM SO SURE OF WHAT I AM SAYING?

 

[Quero]

Ok people: I don´t want to be disrespectful to anybody in anyway but i am so concerned about all this comments, all i read is if the person was snorkeling or scubadiving, if the person was from alaska or canada, if it was the guide´s fault or the diver´s fault, if it was a man or a woman, if it was a heart attack or it was something else, if the coroner already made an statemant or else , if the people here in cabo are trainned to handle this type of situations, if they are mcdonals divers or they´re certified dive-masters. If it was this or it was that,,,,,,,,,,,,,, common guys a human being passed away

You're missing the point cdm1. Nobody is callously ignoring the fact that a person died. However, because of the inconsistencies in the news reports (Canada/Alaska, woman/man, etc.), it has not been clear whether the victim was scuba diving or snorkeling. You have told us that it was a scuba diver. That helps because the objective of this forum isn't as a source of news, but rather as a resource for learning from incidents in the hope that we can become safer divers. Nor is the objective of this forum to lament the death through expressions of condolence (we have a separate forum for these kinds of messages). No, what is intended here is a place where we can discuss the factors contributing to the death of a scuba diver. When it's a straightforward medical issue like heart attack, our discussions focus on health and fitness to dive; when it's a failure of technique, we go in that direction. But we cannot know what way to take our discussion here without getting some basic information:
Was it scuba or snorkeling?
Was it a medical problem or something else?
What emergency measures were implemented?
... and so on.

yes a person died, a diver, the third one in a one year period,,,,lets not mention the dive shop the diver was diving with. The point is if we the people who make or living out from this activity don´t do nothing about it, this is going to keep happening, yes we are going to be killing people. How????? If we do not follow the diving standars if we don´t act based on our trainnig if we don´t manage and handle diving accidents the way they suppose to be handled if we just don´t do nothing about it we will be reading some more of this posts here @ scubaboard accidents and incidents forum.
Another thing here in mexico we don´t have the right people to do diving accident investigation , they don´t have the right equipment to do the necessary tests to the air bottles, neither the coroner´s office has the trainned personnel or legal system is a joke, you can fix legal problems with cash$$$$$$$$$$$ i guess here in mexico corruption is just human nature,,,,,,,,,,,that´s all i can say and once again sorry for being so
forthright and my apologiez if i touched some fibres!

Your post, cdm1 suggests that you believe that safety standards were not followed and that emergency procedures were lacking. Is that in fact what you're saying? If so, those are serious claims, and you should have solid evidence to back up these claims.
Was there something wrong with the dive equipment or the air?
Was this a student diver or a certified diver and was there a duty of care issue?
Was help not called for promptly?
Was CPR/first not administered appropriately?
Was emergency oxygen not administered?

If that's not what you mean cdm1, please clarify your comments.