That the VAST majority of incidents on this forum lately, all seem to be people of a certain age group. I am certainly keeping this in the back of my mind as I age further...
This was bound to happen. Diving really became a thing because of baby boomers and there is bound to be a large aging population of divers, some of whom will certainly believe, as we are reading here, that it's better to die in the saddle than wait for it in the living room.
I admire people remaining active for as long as possible. I also *really* think that staying active is the only game in town if you want to live a long and happy life. That said, I also believe that people need to understand that if they check out in the middle of a dive that the consequences for the survivors is often very traumatic.
Here's an example. A shop where I worked a number of years ago took a group on a guided dive. One of the divers in the group was someone we didn't know. He filled in all "no" on the medical form and they took him diving. While he was getting his gear on, he had a heart attack and died. He was standing on a pier at the time and when he fell he rolled into the water and it became a dive accident. The incident was investigated by police, the instructor in charge was never charged with a crime nor were there any legal consequences to the incident.
However, the trauma of having tried to save someone's life and failing, being in the spotlight for his possible role in events, the inevitable fallout on the internet where all manner of horrible accusations were made based on zero knowledge of the instructor, the diver or the circumstances, were just too much for him. He quit his job and he stopped diving entirely.
Several of the other people who were there that day never came back. I don't know if they stopped diving or not but it's a common reaction to this kind of thing. We never heard from them again at any rate.....
The ONE person who was not traumatized was the man's wife. She knew ALL about his heart condition. She knew that he had concealed it from the shop and they had long since made peace with the fact that he chose to LIVE his life and "die in the saddle" rather than to try and live for as long as possible at any cost. Neither the diver nor his wife had given the first thought to what would happen to other people who were there when he died..... and I believe they actually didn't care.
Partly that incident and partly the fact that many divers have started dying from medical conditions, I now give this attention in the theory part of the lessons. The main thing I try to get across without it sounding like sermon is that physical fitness is important and that while you can dive to a very advanced age, there is a clear need after a certain age to get medically checked every year.
R..
