Diver Drowns At White Star Quarry
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While the incident is still under investigation I am not able to comment as fully as I would like to this thread. That being said, I was involved in the rescue attempt/recovery and the recovery of the equipment and I can assure you that this unfortunate incident did not involve Poseidon or the event what-so-ever. I will provide details when I am able to.
Dive Safe,
Rich
Thanks for the clarification Rich. I know we will all appreciate your factual comments on the situation when the time is appropriate and you are able to provide the details. Thanks for the update.
Post Deleted. (Used "Like" button, instead.)
Last edited:
CamG
Contributor
These tragedies only get worse if we are not very careful with public comments that can be misconstrued by those non-divers so THANK YOU RICH!
The family and friends of the deceased need to be shown great respect that is how I would want my loved ones treated!
The facts will come out on this incident those involved will see to it.
Till then we need to offer our thoughts and prayers for the families, friends, and dive buddy.
Heavy hearts this week lost to many divers this past week end.
CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!
The family and friends of the deceased need to be shown great respect that is how I would want my loved ones treated!
The facts will come out on this incident those involved will see to it.
Till then we need to offer our thoughts and prayers for the families, friends, and dive buddy.
Heavy hearts this week lost to many divers this past week end.
CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!
Rocketmahn
Contributor
This account was posted on our local clubs site by an instructor/technician/dive buddy of mine.
Today (Monday) I had a Poseidon refresher course for regulator repairs.
When I got to Whitestar quarry to meet with Jerry the (Poseidon) technician and co designer of the Poseidon rebreather I ask how the weekend went for them.
That's when he said it was a good weekend until about 5:00pm on Sunday.
He then explained that his assistant and he were packing up the truck and trailer when the only two divers at the quarry were getting into the water.
Shortly after they entered the water Jerry heard someone yelling for help.
He ran to the edge of the water where the diver said his buddy was on the bottom and he could not get him up.
Jerry told him that he was the only one in dive gear and he had to go down get the weights off and fill his BC and bring him to the surface.
He said he could not get his weights off and bring him up.
By then others showed up.
Jerry said someone went down and put a 50# lift bag on the diver to bring him up.
The diver was wearing a rebreather.
It was modified and the diver had sown it 14 # of weight into the rebreather unit. The diver had no ditchable weights.
The rescue team was asking Jerry some question about the rebreather unit, Jerry told them that he could not comment on it as the unit was one of the competitions models and anything he would say would be challenged in court, but he recommended they get the black box to be looked at to see if it was working right.
Today (Monday) I had a Poseidon refresher course for regulator repairs.
When I got to Whitestar quarry to meet with Jerry the (Poseidon) technician and co designer of the Poseidon rebreather I ask how the weekend went for them.
That's when he said it was a good weekend until about 5:00pm on Sunday.
He then explained that his assistant and he were packing up the truck and trailer when the only two divers at the quarry were getting into the water.
Shortly after they entered the water Jerry heard someone yelling for help.
He ran to the edge of the water where the diver said his buddy was on the bottom and he could not get him up.
Jerry told him that he was the only one in dive gear and he had to go down get the weights off and fill his BC and bring him to the surface.
He said he could not get his weights off and bring him up.
By then others showed up.
Jerry said someone went down and put a 50# lift bag on the diver to bring him up.
The diver was wearing a rebreather.
It was modified and the diver had sown it 14 # of weight into the rebreather unit. The diver had no ditchable weights.
The rescue team was asking Jerry some question about the rebreather unit, Jerry told them that he could not comment on it as the unit was one of the competitions models and anything he would say would be challenged in court, but he recommended they get the black box to be looked at to see if it was working right.
As I typed in a previous post, now that I am able, here are most of the details from the accident last Sunday. Please keep in mind that to the family of the victim this was a very tragic, life changing event. I am truly sorry for their loss. I give the information, along with my personal observations and opinions for the sake of knowlege and because in this case, I feel it was avoidable and that there are lessons to be learned here.
I would ask out of respect that you refrain from reposting or linking this this via facebook, myspace et. al. If you have a link to this post I would ask that it be deleted to protect all the parties involved. I am also holding my copyright so any reprinting of any part of this post will be billed at a fee of $10,000 per duplication which you agree to the minute you reprint even a paraphrase of it. (to keep any reporters away) Everything here is on public record now, just find a different source. For all of you reporters and Lawyer types, I go on record to say I made all of this up and it is complete fiction.
Before I begin, I want to personally thank the Sandusky County EMS, Rangers, Sandusky County Parks, Gibsonburg Police Department, Sandusky County Sheriffs, Life Flight and the Gibsonburg Fire Department because they came to do what they could and all of them gave what theyhad to help the injured diver. I want to also thank Shane, who swam out to help, my wife and other bystanders for doing what they could, and the two guys in the fishing boat who helped pull me to the rescue and pull me and the victim back to shore as we kicked/ rowed and prayed our asses off to get him there as quickly as we could. I also want to let you, the reader, know that everything that could be done, was done.
The Situation:
We were closing up the concession a little later than normal because of the awesome weekend we had experienced with the people from Poseidon. My stuff was dry and I was packing it up when Jill (my wife) ran up and said there was someone yelling out on the quarry. I ran to the shore with the guys I was talking with and tried to find out what was going on. When the Guy on the water yelled "I can't get him up!" (he never signalled that he was in trouble) I told Jill to call 911 and come back to spot him and I quickly geared up. No undergarments, drysuit and my gear which was still assembled, and a hood. I jumped into the water and started swimming as fast as I could to the diver. A fishing boat caught up to me and towed me half the way and from there I saw Shane swimming out to the diver in just his shorts. As we got closer I could hear someone yelling to the buddy. Later Shane told me he yelled "No one has gear you need to bring him up!" By the time I got to them, Shane was towing with the buddy and they had ditched as much of his weights as they could. It appears that he had pockets sewn into his wetsuit for weights and they were having trouble ditching them. The buddy was attempting mouth to mouth. When I reached them with the boat I told them to pass the victim to me and the boat and I would get him to shore. We were about even with the Motorcyle along the south wall. The guys in the boat started Rowing and I started Kicking and we got him to shore... guys were in the water to pass the victim to the waiting EMS. His suit was opened, blood was coming from the victims nose. They suctioned him, Oxygen and CPR were all almost immediate. They called for the AED but quickly changed to loading him into the ambulance and running across the street to the waiting life flight crew. The life flight copters are flying hospitals with a Physician, Flight medic/nurse and more than enough Advanced Life Support equipment. After about 40 or so minutes, I found out that the Physician had called time of death and they were not going to transport. The victim was turned over to the coroner.
Equipment Recovery and Investigation:
Standing at the shore trying to learn how to breath again (I hate surface swimming) I found out that they were still trying to figure out information on the buddy and the victim. The Buddy had removed the victims gear underwater since he couldn't lift it. My wife, Jill and my neice were going through the Diver Envelopes to find the information that we needed to contact the family but it appeared that neither the victim, nor the buddy had filled out the envelope, nor it seemed had they paid for diving. When the buddy was questioned, he said that he had given his envelopes to the victim to take care of them. Since the County Dive team was delayed, I volunteered to retrieve the scuba unit. Since the buddy had not been able to lift it, I asked that a lift bag be brought out via the boat while I started the search. I found the unit, a rebreather, about 5 minutes into the dive. The Mouthpiece was floating up away from it but it was lying on the carapace, harness up. I tried the power inflator but it did not function. I tried to lift it but it was far too heavy. Carefully marking the spot, I came to the surface, signaled "object found" to the waiting sheriff and rangers, and got the lift bag from the boat. The unit took a lot of air to make it buoyant and when I got it to the surface I told the boat that we would just tow it back slowly since it so heavy someone would get hurt trying to lift it into the boat. When we got it to shore, the waiting ranger started the chain of custody and we both needed help lifting it onto the shore. The County Dive team had arrived with their boat to recover the weights and to clear the underwater scene. The dive computer, computer mask, and fins were also secured. The County team recovered approx. 14 lbs of lead that had been removed from the wetsuit pockets of the victim.
I also later learned that in a search for the missing envelopes with the releases and contact information on it by the rangers, there had been a surprising twist. It turns out that the buddy recanted his previous statement about giving the envelopes to the victim and and now said that they had not paid for diving " in quite awhile." There were a number of blank envelopes found in the car with the tops missing. The buddy was cited for tresspassing and the report on the victim included that he was injured while commiting a midemeanor. This is unfortunately necessary to protect all involved from liability.
Autopsy:
The Medical examiner ruled the cause of death as an Air Embolism. The lungs were completely clear. Also found were indications that there had been a pulmonary embolism event about two hours previous to the larger one. The examiner indicated that the first embolism would not have caused much pain until exaserbated by the second dive. It was the examiners opinion that the embolism was severe enough to have caused an instantaneous death and that the rescuers could not have done anything to save the victim.
Equipment Post Mortem:
The equipment was examined by rebreather professionals and it was found that the
rebreather had started out as an Inspriation Buddy, but had so many modifications done to it as to no longer resemble the manufacturers specifications. All of the components except for the scrubber, counter lungs, computers, carapace and one hose had been replaced with "off brand" items or custom made materials. The counter lungs had been heavily modified and were tucked behind the divers shoulders with their valves moved and the water trap replaced with something in which function could not be determined. The regulators were "off brand" and the diluent bottle, normally (i think) 30cf was 6 cf and the Oxygen bottle also normally 30 cf(I think) was approx 13cf. Both were empty. The loop was flooded. The backplate and Cage were all heavy stainless steel and there was a significant amount of lead integrated into the system (explaining the heaviness.) All the manufactures marks, serial numbers and identifying marks were Obliterated or obsured.
Lessons to be Learned:
With all tragedies there are lessons to be learned. I am not pointing fingers, just bringing closure to a senseless death in the hopes that the lessons are a tribute to the passing of the diver. I hope we can learn from this to keep something like this from happening again. These are my opinions but I am pretty experienced and you should listen to what I have to say. The deceased was a pretty experienced diver from what I have learned of him.
If you have any questions, please contact me privately and I will do what I can to answer them. Please respect those involved.
and most importantly, PLEASE Dive Safe,
Rich
I would ask out of respect that you refrain from reposting or linking this this via facebook, myspace et. al. If you have a link to this post I would ask that it be deleted to protect all the parties involved. I am also holding my copyright so any reprinting of any part of this post will be billed at a fee of $10,000 per duplication which you agree to the minute you reprint even a paraphrase of it. (to keep any reporters away) Everything here is on public record now, just find a different source. For all of you reporters and Lawyer types, I go on record to say I made all of this up and it is complete fiction.
Before I begin, I want to personally thank the Sandusky County EMS, Rangers, Sandusky County Parks, Gibsonburg Police Department, Sandusky County Sheriffs, Life Flight and the Gibsonburg Fire Department because they came to do what they could and all of them gave what theyhad to help the injured diver. I want to also thank Shane, who swam out to help, my wife and other bystanders for doing what they could, and the two guys in the fishing boat who helped pull me to the rescue and pull me and the victim back to shore as we kicked/ rowed and prayed our asses off to get him there as quickly as we could. I also want to let you, the reader, know that everything that could be done, was done.
The Situation:
We were closing up the concession a little later than normal because of the awesome weekend we had experienced with the people from Poseidon. My stuff was dry and I was packing it up when Jill (my wife) ran up and said there was someone yelling out on the quarry. I ran to the shore with the guys I was talking with and tried to find out what was going on. When the Guy on the water yelled "I can't get him up!" (he never signalled that he was in trouble) I told Jill to call 911 and come back to spot him and I quickly geared up. No undergarments, drysuit and my gear which was still assembled, and a hood. I jumped into the water and started swimming as fast as I could to the diver. A fishing boat caught up to me and towed me half the way and from there I saw Shane swimming out to the diver in just his shorts. As we got closer I could hear someone yelling to the buddy. Later Shane told me he yelled "No one has gear you need to bring him up!" By the time I got to them, Shane was towing with the buddy and they had ditched as much of his weights as they could. It appears that he had pockets sewn into his wetsuit for weights and they were having trouble ditching them. The buddy was attempting mouth to mouth. When I reached them with the boat I told them to pass the victim to me and the boat and I would get him to shore. We were about even with the Motorcyle along the south wall. The guys in the boat started Rowing and I started Kicking and we got him to shore... guys were in the water to pass the victim to the waiting EMS. His suit was opened, blood was coming from the victims nose. They suctioned him, Oxygen and CPR were all almost immediate. They called for the AED but quickly changed to loading him into the ambulance and running across the street to the waiting life flight crew. The life flight copters are flying hospitals with a Physician, Flight medic/nurse and more than enough Advanced Life Support equipment. After about 40 or so minutes, I found out that the Physician had called time of death and they were not going to transport. The victim was turned over to the coroner.
Equipment Recovery and Investigation:
Standing at the shore trying to learn how to breath again (I hate surface swimming) I found out that they were still trying to figure out information on the buddy and the victim. The Buddy had removed the victims gear underwater since he couldn't lift it. My wife, Jill and my neice were going through the Diver Envelopes to find the information that we needed to contact the family but it appeared that neither the victim, nor the buddy had filled out the envelope, nor it seemed had they paid for diving. When the buddy was questioned, he said that he had given his envelopes to the victim to take care of them. Since the County Dive team was delayed, I volunteered to retrieve the scuba unit. Since the buddy had not been able to lift it, I asked that a lift bag be brought out via the boat while I started the search. I found the unit, a rebreather, about 5 minutes into the dive. The Mouthpiece was floating up away from it but it was lying on the carapace, harness up. I tried the power inflator but it did not function. I tried to lift it but it was far too heavy. Carefully marking the spot, I came to the surface, signaled "object found" to the waiting sheriff and rangers, and got the lift bag from the boat. The unit took a lot of air to make it buoyant and when I got it to the surface I told the boat that we would just tow it back slowly since it so heavy someone would get hurt trying to lift it into the boat. When we got it to shore, the waiting ranger started the chain of custody and we both needed help lifting it onto the shore. The County Dive team had arrived with their boat to recover the weights and to clear the underwater scene. The dive computer, computer mask, and fins were also secured. The County team recovered approx. 14 lbs of lead that had been removed from the wetsuit pockets of the victim.
I also later learned that in a search for the missing envelopes with the releases and contact information on it by the rangers, there had been a surprising twist. It turns out that the buddy recanted his previous statement about giving the envelopes to the victim and and now said that they had not paid for diving " in quite awhile." There were a number of blank envelopes found in the car with the tops missing. The buddy was cited for tresspassing and the report on the victim included that he was injured while commiting a midemeanor. This is unfortunately necessary to protect all involved from liability.
Autopsy:
The Medical examiner ruled the cause of death as an Air Embolism. The lungs were completely clear. Also found were indications that there had been a pulmonary embolism event about two hours previous to the larger one. The examiner indicated that the first embolism would not have caused much pain until exaserbated by the second dive. It was the examiners opinion that the embolism was severe enough to have caused an instantaneous death and that the rescuers could not have done anything to save the victim.
Equipment Post Mortem:
The equipment was examined by rebreather professionals and it was found that the
rebreather had started out as an Inspriation Buddy, but had so many modifications done to it as to no longer resemble the manufacturers specifications. All of the components except for the scrubber, counter lungs, computers, carapace and one hose had been replaced with "off brand" items or custom made materials. The counter lungs had been heavily modified and were tucked behind the divers shoulders with their valves moved and the water trap replaced with something in which function could not be determined. The regulators were "off brand" and the diluent bottle, normally (i think) 30cf was 6 cf and the Oxygen bottle also normally 30 cf(I think) was approx 13cf. Both were empty. The loop was flooded. The backplate and Cage were all heavy stainless steel and there was a significant amount of lead integrated into the system (explaining the heaviness.) All the manufactures marks, serial numbers and identifying marks were Obliterated or obsured.
Lessons to be Learned:
With all tragedies there are lessons to be learned. I am not pointing fingers, just bringing closure to a senseless death in the hopes that the lessons are a tribute to the passing of the diver. I hope we can learn from this to keep something like this from happening again. These are my opinions but I am pretty experienced and you should listen to what I have to say. The deceased was a pretty experienced diver from what I have learned of him.
- If you truly believe something like this could never happen to you, hang up your fins now before you get someone hurt. I know that you take responsiblity and will be beyond caring if you die diving, but you may hurt a rescuer or your buddy in the process. I am not saying to be afraid of water, I am saying to have a healthy respect for the fact you cannot breath it.
- Do NOT ever mess with your equipment. You may be the smartest engineer in the world, and you may be the most mechanically inclined person who ever walked the earth, but you are not the manufacturer of the equipment. If you are a TRAINED service technician you know what I mean, but if you aren't, just resist the temptation to mess with it. I am a CERTIFIED Repair technician for over 25 manufacturers. I do not mess with equipment that I am not certified AND current in. I rebuild about 10 - 20 regulators and BCD's each week. Even if you only work on your own gear, you would only do it once a year. Imagine if you were a pilot that only flew once a year.
- Make sure your gear floats without you in it. Most divers are diving over-weighted. If you need a lot of weight make sure it can be ditched by ANYONE in an emergency.
- If you are diving a harness, especially one that does not have quick releases. Make sure your buddy knows how to get you out of it. You should not settle for the "oh, they will just cut it off me." Also, you, yourself should practice removing and replacing your scuba equipment until it is second nature.
- I really think everyone should become rescue diver certified...enough said.
- If you are relying on your buddy to be your back up, you should REALLY let them know what could happen and what to do when something does happen, and practice it. This unfortunate diver left his buddy with the burden of feeling helpless when there is nothing he could have done to prevent the problem. The buddy may never go back to diving.
- Remember that your actions have consequences far beyond your personal space. My phone lit up as soon as the news hit. My wife's phone lit up to make sure it wasn't me. Something like this hurts all divers and the diving community. It was in the news for a week. I just this evening had to explain to my 6 year old twins who watched their Daddy jump into the water as all the ems arrived, that the hurt diver had "gone to heaven to be with God." (Our neice kept them away from the actual rescue.)
- Rules that are at dive sites are there for your safety and to insure that the services that you come to expect are continued. Follow them or don't dive there. After this incident, there was talk of banning rebreathers at White Star. (don't worry, it is not going to happen)
- If you do not want to pay for diving at any of the dive sites, then don't dive there. As a diver you should also be responsible enough not to enable bad behaviors in others. Just like you would not allow a buddy to strip a wreck in the Great Lakes, don't let them break the rules elsewhere. The fees that dive parks, charters and marine parks charge are there so they are able to have employees keep everything functioning, facilities that cater to us and people there to save us when there is a problem. If you think they are charging too much, dive somewhere else, don't cheat them.
If you have any questions, please contact me privately and I will do what I can to answer them. Please respect those involved.
and most importantly, PLEASE Dive Safe,
Rich
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DiversInc, thanks for sharing the story. Just amazing.
DiversIncorporated, thanks for that, I suspect you meant Pulmonary Embolism, rather than air embolism? That is a blood clot moves from a large vein, usually the lower limb to the pulmonary artery, and if small is asymptomatic, and if large can be instantly fatal. If that is the case, it has nothing to do with diving at all, and would have happened on dry land with the same outcome. I can't imagine a "small" air embolism occurring 2 hours earlier, that is before the dive, because air embolism implies over expansion lung injury. I suspect this unfortunate death was due to "natural causes".
Last edited:
CamG
Contributor
Rich THANK YOU, the dive community as a whole thanks you!
I feel for all those involved in this incident my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends.
I applaud the efforts of the rescuers and emergency staff without them the activity we all love would be significantly more dangerous.
I want to specifically comment on the non-registry issue this is a HUGE mistake on many fronts.
PLEASE EVERYONE even if you are not diving please register!
The dive sites insurance, your well being, your loved ones notification all becomes like detective work if you do not register.
The cost of registering is a small price when things go awry.
Thank you Rich again and the report was done well.
CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!
I feel for all those involved in this incident my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends.
I applaud the efforts of the rescuers and emergency staff without them the activity we all love would be significantly more dangerous.
I want to specifically comment on the non-registry issue this is a HUGE mistake on many fronts.
PLEASE EVERYONE even if you are not diving please register!
The dive sites insurance, your well being, your loved ones notification all becomes like detective work if you do not register.
The cost of registering is a small price when things go awry.
Thank you Rich again and the report was done well.
CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!
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