Diving Fatality In Czech Republic

[Tzymische]

this one - 28/02/2016

Strany potápěčské - Flash news

My czech isnt that good at all but as far I can understand :

OOA situation on about 28m at Svobodne Hermanovice. Diver refused to take regulator from second diver and did rapid ascent from 28m. Brought back to shore with suspected burst lungs (blood and foam coming out of his mouth) - after attempted cpr/help - pronounced dead eventually.

empty 15l and also stage bottle was found - but valve was turned off and was showing 0 bar...

 

[DandyDon]

Google translate doesn't explain it well either. I hope someone fluent in both languages can for us.

 

[insomnia]

I am from Czech Republic, so I can explain briefly.

The diver had OOA situation (both single tank and stage were empty after accident). His buddy wanted to give him his regulator but the diver already inflated his BCD and shot himself to the surface. The diver died on barotrauma before any medical help arrived.

Lastly, I would like to mention that there are accidents every year. The dive site is nice and quite easy (V shape slate quarry), however there is 500 m long line on the bottom of the quarry, the average depth is around 30 m, variable visibility throughout the year (2-12m), and many diver w/ improper training underestimate their gas supply and deco.

Here is the link to the location description in CZ Strany potápěčské - Svobodné Heřmanice - lom Šífr

 

[DandyDon]

The diver had OOA situation (both single tank and stage were empty after accident). His buddy wanted to give him his regulator but the diver already inflated his BCD and shot himself to the surface. The diver died on barotrauma before any medical help arrived

Thanks, Insomnia. I've been told that it's better to rocket to the surface and risk barotrauma than to drown & sink as a faster rescue is possible, but here I have to wonder what went wrong on the OOA ascent? Why didn't he accept air offered from his buddy instead of bolting? Didn't see him, or panic?

If he had done is without inflating, and kept his airway open & reg in his mouth - he should have avoided barotrauma, obtaining new air to breathe as he ascended. I don't know how deep he was when he finished his stage bottle and bolted, but I had a stupid OOA once from 50 feet, that's what I did - not ascending fast enough to match my slow exhale, I ran out of lung air around 15 feet. I stopped swimming up, got a new breath from the air expanding in the previously empty tank, restarted my slow exhale & ascent, and surfaced with enough air to inflate my BC and even use my inline horn to call the boat.

but valve was turned off and was showing 0 bar

I wondered why he'd bothered to turn the valve off on the stage, but on rereading the google translation, I don't see that mentioned?

 

[insomnia]

I've been told that it's better to check your SPG and plan your gas management. As you say, we can only wonder. It could have been combination of barotrauma and DCS as he had 0 bar in both tanks and average depth is 30m as I said. Maybe buddy was not close enough and the diver got in panic when realized being OOA.

About the valve on stage turned off, it is also not very clear in CZ language.

 

[Ayisha]

Of course checking your SPG and planning your gas management and sticking to your plan are crucial. The emergency ascent reminds me of a seminar that I went to last spring by Dr George Harpur, a longtime diver and our Tobermory coroner, and one of the early researchers of Immersion Pulmonary Edema (IPE). For the last several years, he has been advocating that if an emergency swimming ascent is done, a diver should attempt a breath here and there along the ascent. From his investigations as a coroner, he found that divers often went unconscious by the time they reached 10 feet from the surface due to a lack of oxygen and some basic need to breathe, and from ascending too slowly. He said that fooling the brain by attempting to breathe once in a while was enough to prevent unconsciousness, and of course, once shallower the remaining gas in the tank will become available.

I wondered if faced with that situation, if someone would get more panicked if they tried to breathe and couldn't get a breath, but I understand the gist of what he was saying.
Something fairly new to think about...

 

[Jax]

So very sad - Missing a basic concept like leaving your airway open.

 

[Ayisha]

So very sad - Missing a basic concept like leaving your airway open.

According to Dr Harpur, leaving your airway open is not enough. Some divers go unconscious squeezing out their last breath or even when they still might have part of a breath left due to the mammalian instinct to breathe. He says we need to attempt to inhale once in a while during that emergency ascent in order to increase our chances of maintaining consciousness.

 

[Steve_C]

If diver has emptied both a their tank and a stage bottle, they may have been down a while and at 90 ft with significant tissue loading. Sounds like panic. Could have also been seriously narced which is why air had not been checked.