German woman dies in Baltic Sea dive

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

DandyDon

Colonoscopy Advocate
ScubaBoard Supporter
Messages
53,628
Reaction score
7,816
Location
One kilometer high on the Texas Central Plains
# of dives
500 - 999
Google translation...
A woman from Peine died during a dive in the Baltic Sea . She was just 34 years old.

Peine: Fatal diving accident in the Baltic Sea

The accident happened on Saturday almost nine kilometers east of the island of Fehmarn, as the police and public prosecutor in Lübeck announced on Tuesday. The 34-year-old from the Peine district was underwater with a group of four divers.

After reappearing, she had to be revived from first. So far nobody knows why. The 34-year-old was considered an experienced diver. She later died on the DGzRS rescue cruiser "Bremen" on the way to the port of Burgstaaken on Fehmarn.

In this case, many questions remain unanswered. According to the public prosecutor's office, the woman's body should be examined by a forensic doctor. The diving equipment was seized for inspection.
 
IPE, I wonder
 
This is honestly the scariest thing about diving to me. Basically everything else seems to be preventable to some degree.
How often do you practice ditching weights? If you don't, try it. You don't actually have to drop them; just go thru the motions as if you were on the verge of doing so. It can be surprising how much you may fumble at first. I do this on the first dive of every dive trip to remind myself of the feeling, as well as to remind myself that it's always an option. IPE is generally survivable if you'll abort the dive as is a lung overexpansion injury.

Most dead divers are found on the bottom with weights attached. I have no idea what happened to this woman.
 
How often do you practice ditching weights?
I use steel doubles, and don't need weights other than what's in my gear. I always dive with two sources of buoyancy though (drysuit and wing), connected to separate first stages.

IPE is generally survivable if you'll abort the dive as is lung overexpansion injury.
I just feel like I've read so many case reports of a victim suffering from IPE, aborting the dive, but losing their life anyway. And it seems practically impossible to determine who's susceptible to it.

But yes, we have no idea what happened to this woman.
 
I just feel like I've read so many case reports of a victim suffering from IPE, aborting the dive, but losing their life anyway. And it seems practically impossible to determine who's susceptible to it.
Well, it is a risk, but not very common under age 75 I don't think. I'm close enough to 75 that TSA agents have started letting me keep my shoes and belt on for airport screening, but my Cardiologist thinks my heart is fine. I get it, it's not a preventable risk, not caused by diver mistakes, but I think my exposure to other drivers on the road is a much greater risk - yet I'm fine with thousand-mile road trips as long as I watch for them. Good luck on shaking that fear.
 
I just feel like I've read so many case reports of a victim suffering from IPE, aborting the dive, but losing their life anyway.

For some perspective, this was (AFAIK) initially diagnosed in triathletes who finished the races and came to medical tent to get their breathing checked. Granted, they are iron people, not like us regular folk, but I don't think any of them died of it. I.e. it should be perfectly survivable, as long as you make it to the boat.
 
IPE:


Seems very plausible.

How often do you practice ditching weights? If you don't, try it. You don't actually have to drop them; just go thru the motions as if you were on the verge of doing so. It can be surprising how much you may fumble at first. I do this on the first dive of every dive trip to remind myself of the feeling, as well as to remind myself that it's always an option. IPE is generally survivable if you'll abort the dive as is a lung overexpansion injury.

Most dead divers are found on the bottom with weights attached. I have no idea what happened to this woman.
(possibly off-topic) No idea what happened to the woman either.

I will say PRACTICE with your equipment is very important. A little over a year ago, I was regularly in the state of fumbling to find my knife, octo, and various other equipment quickly. A minor incident I experienced taught me that was unacceptable:


These days, I do practice, and have no difficulty "instantly" switching regs, grabbing cutting tools, etc. The only thing I'm a little rough on is deploying my DSMB. I can do it, but I'm typically fumbling a bit. Fairly soon, I'll probably take a day and a couple tanks practicing that over-and-over until I get it right.

If one is properly weighted, one shouldn't need to ditch weights, but that's all I'll say as to avoid dredging up that debate.
 
IPE:
The only thing I'm a little rough on is deploying my DSMB. I can do it, but I'm typically fumbling a bit. Fairly soon, I'll probably take a day and a couple tanks practicing that over-and-over until I get it right.

Two things helped me with dsmb deployments. One was filling the sink with water to practice loading the smb. Seriously, I repeated the process dozens of times in the sink, and it locked in the muscle memory. Now whenever doing an ascent I deploy the smb from depth and ascend the line, it actually makes controlled ascents much easier, and is fun.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom