Israeli woman drowns during epileptic incident - Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

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If a professional on-duty lifeguard doesn’t know CPR that is pretty weird though, even in the third world… Anyone more worldly than me want to comment on how likely that is? If it’s true, what are they even there for?!
I wouldn't call Egypt a third-world country, developing maybe altho those terms are really outdated. Variances happen for different reasons. In the US today many communities have shortages of qualified lifeguards as the associated agencies did not get to recruit and train as usual. It might be that some shortcuts were taken in this resort, perhaps.
 
If a professional on-duty lifeguard doesn’t know CPR that is pretty weird though, even in the third world… Anyone more worldly than me want to comment on how likely that is? If it’s true, what are they even there for?!
TBH Its not unheard of with in the Middle East for so called rescue professionals not to be actaully trained up. Chances are that they probably had been trained but the resort never did drills so the skills were never practiced, resulting in poorly prepared personnel. The article isn't overly clear on the situation as it is based of a panicked and grieving individuals memory which is never a reliable source of information.
 
Eh, everyone dies. One presumes she knew the risk and decided it was worth doing. It's not my place to question that judgement.
 
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My eyeballs popped out of my head when I read that line about how she didn't have seizures "all the time." But after I stuffed them back in, I reread it and wondered if it might be a mistranslation. Maybe what he said was more like "she took her medication and never had seizures anymore." I'm not fully up on the current dive medicine; I know asthma used to be an absolute contraindication but now it's considered acceptable if it's well-controlled. Is the same true of epilepsy or nah?
 
I can't speak for diving, but I know if you have not had a seizure for 6 months you can drive legally, and that has to be considered more dangerous.
 
Speaking with Hebrew media, Orit’s husband Itzik said that she had an epileptic seizure while diving, charging that the local lifeguards didn’t have sufficient knowledge of CPR to save her life.
🤦‍♂️
One of my co-workers successfully resuscitated a boy that had been submerged in a creek for at least 10 minutes. The boy had some brain damage from lack of oxygen for so long. The parents attempted to sue the rescuer. Luckily state law protected him. Some people.....
🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

And I guess the list goes on with examples like these. Personally, I think the medical questionnaire is a blessing. Gives you (as the instructor or divemaster) the right to say no to a customer and send him/her off to see a doctor.

Diving is optional, surfacing is mandatory
If only every diver was forced to sign and understand that statement, the litigation blamegame would stop right there.
 
People like that are one of the problems in this world
I have a (seemingly rare?) mentality where I have a natural urge to protect people or take action, and have done so on numerous occasions even though large numbers of people stand there doing nothing. It can be a MASSIVE liability though, which is why I often stay away from places/locations/activities where certain kinds of events might occur.
If a professional on-duty lifeguard doesn’t know CPR that is pretty weird though, even in the third world… Anyone more worldly than me want to comment on how likely that is? If it’s true, what are they even there for?!
It is curious anyway; at least if the person was actually a "lifeguard" at a body of water, they would have training to manage common life-saving-water-related incidents. (It could certainly be culture related, although I have no local knowledge.) It's like a car-mechanic that doesn't know how to work on cars.
Eh, everyone dies. One presumes she knew the risk and decided it was worth doing. It's not my place to question that judgement.
I somewhat side with this view; if she decided to take the risk, and chance was not on her side, that's on her and perhaps it was worth it to her. There's always a chance I'll die scuba-diving, probably somewhat similar to my chances of dying while driving. However, there are certainly things I can (and have) done to mitigate that risk, such as redundancy, monitoring my mental/physical state, etc.

I'm guessing this woman wasn't wearing a life-jacket. She'd still have some risk of drowning even if she did wear one, but might have cut that chance down significantly. (I've never snorkeled with a life-jacket, but it seems like you could make it work, with some adjustments.)
I can't speak for diving, but I know if you have not had a seizure for 6 months you can drive legally, and that has to be considered more dangerous.
There's certainly a difference between neglect that is a risk to others, versus a risk to self.
 
I know asthma used to be an absolute contraindication but now it's considered acceptable if it's well-controlled. Is the same true of epilepsy or nah?

Can You Scuba Dive With Epilepsy? - National Epilepsy Training.

The majority of diving authorities will not allow diving for a person with epilepsy, regardless of how long it’s been since a person’s last seizure. A smaller minority will consider it, but only after five years with no seizures after discontinuation of medication.
 
I'm surprised some kind of elastic "headband" meant to keep the reg in ones mouth doesnt exist (or maybe it does?).

They exist and are commonly called gag-straps. They are installed on some pure Oxygen rebreathers used by combat swimmers. As I recall, @Dr Simon Mitchell has done some research on the subject.


I'd go with poor journalism.

Or a translation from a non-English speaker... or all the above.
 
There's always a chance I'll die scuba-diving, probably somewhat similar to my chances of dying while driving.
Odds of dying in a car crash are 1 in 103 according to the national safety council.
They do not track scuba deaths directly, but they do track drowning in specific scenarios such as falling into a bathtub or falling into a pool. The drowning stat they have for "unspecified drowning and submersion" is 1 in 6,563. Other accounts of scuba death chances vary from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 2,000.

So, you're much safer in the water than you are while traveling to that water.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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