Children die playing with scuba gear left in pool - Jensen Beach, Florida

[Dan]

Read through the thread. The cause of death has been determined.

I did. I just want to point out that the earlier speculation of choking & panicking mentioned by @RayfromTX does not seem to jive with having regulator still in her mouth. Passing out quickly due to inhaling pure helium could result in having the regulator still in her mouth.

 

[mderrick]

Passing out quickly due to inhaling pure helium could result in having the regulator still in her mouth.

In the case of hypoxia on CCR, the victim just falls asleep and survivors of such events sometimes describe recalling a sense of wellbeing or euphoria prior to LOC. There are plenty of cases of rebreather fatalities due to hypoxia with the body resting on the bottom found with the mouthpiece (called a DSV or BOV) still in the mouth and no water in the lungs. Not an exceptional circumstance and perhaps even most likely, although hypoxia on open-circuit is much less familiar to me than closed circuit. However, I'm not aware of any hyperoxia CCR fatality where the mouthpiece remained in mouth, it will always be spit out at the onset of the event.

Over 40 years ago I was at a dive shop as the owner opened, his very young daughter (perhaps 5 or 6 years old) was tagging along. She made a beeline to the back, emerging with her pony bottle. I watched as she climbed up and balanced on the rim of the water bath at the fill panel and proceeded to fill her own tank. Her only challenge was she was not strong enough to open the line valve, but she persisted with both hands until she got it cracked open. She then closed the valve, bled the line and disconnected the whip, jumped down and mounted the pony on the back of some kind of tiny ski-vest looking jacket (apparently cutdown just for her) and attached a standard rental regulator with hoses almost as long as she was tall. She did all this without any questions or assistance, then shot out the side door to the adjacent training pool. I looked at the owner who clearly wasn't paying much attention at all to this and he only said "been doing it since she started kindergarten". I saw her paddling around on the surface (no way was she going to sink wearing what was essentially a life preserver vest) with no fins or mask and happily blowing bubbles with the octo. It was a different era before "helicopter parenting" became a concept, but instructor SOP is students must manage and assemble their equipment themselves without assistance.

 

[Angelo Farina]

In the case of hypoxia on CCR, the victim just falls asleep and survivors of such events sometimes describe recalling a sense of wellbeing or euphoria prior to LOC. There are plenty of cases of rebreather fatalities due to hypoxia with the body resting on the bottom found with the mouthpiece (called a DSV or BOV) still in the mouth and no water in the lungs. Not an exceptional circumstance and perhaps even most likely, although hypoxia on open-circuit is much less familiar to me than closed circuit. However, I'm not aware of any hyperoxia CCR fatality where the mouthpiece remained in mouth, it will always be spit out at the onset of the event.

Over 40 years ago I was at a dive shop as the owner opened, his very young daughter (perhaps 5 or 6 years old) was tagging along. She made a beeline to the back, emerging with her pony bottle. I watched as she climbed up and balanced on the rim of the water bath at the fill panel and proceeded to fill her own tank. Her only challenge was she was not strong enough to open the line valve, but she persisted with both hands until she got it cracked open. She then closed the valve, bled the line and disconnected the whip, jumped down and mounted the pony on the back of some kind of tiny ski-vest looking jacket (apparently cutdown just for her) and attached a standard rental regulator with hoses almost as long as she was tall. She did all this without any questions or assistance, then shot out the side door to the adjacent training pool. I looked at the owner who clearly wasn't paying much attention at all to this and he only said "been doing it since she started kindergarten". I saw her paddling around on the surface (no way was she going to sink wearing was was essentially a life preserver vest) with no fins or mask and happily blowing bubbles with the octo. It was a different era before "helicopter parenting" became a concept, but instructor SOP is students must manage and assemble their equipment themselves without assistance.

Also my sons started using small air tanks in the pool at 2 years old. At 7 years the were proficient divers, already doing some small caverns in Sardinia at a depth of 5-6 meters... they were able to setup their equipment autonomously, and to perform basic skills such as removing the mask, breathing form the reg without it, and then replacing the mask and evacuating it, or doing buddy breathing with a single reg.
However, in our family we always used only air tanks. I was always quite suspicious of these "gas blending" techniques...

 

[Wookie]

Also my sons started using small air tanks in the pool at 2 years old. At 7 years the were proficient divers, already doing some small caverns in Sardinia at a depth of 5-6 meters... they were able to setup their equipment autonomously, and to perform basic skills such as removing the mask, breathing form the reg without it, and then replacing the mask and evacuating it, or doing buddy breathing with a single reg.
However, in our family we always used only air tanks. I was always quite suspicious of these "gas blending" techniques...

I haven't heard anyone chastise any of the adults for allowing the littles to dive in the pool, the hangup seems to be not knowing what gas they were using. As the adults were technical divers, there ought to have been some sort of way to figure out what was in that cylinder. Heck of a costly mistake.

 

[mderrick]

I haven't heard anyone chastise any of the adults for allowing the littles to dive in the pool, the hangup seems to be not knowing what gas they were using. As the adults were technical divers, there ought to have been some sort of way to figure out what was in that cylinder. Heck of a costly mistake.

My observation would be, we don't know who selected and assembled the cylinder and regulator; the assumption it was an adult might be invalid.

 

[stuartv]

In the case of hypoxia on CCR, the victim just falls asleep and survivors of such events sometimes describe recalling a sense of wellbeing or euphoria prior to LOC. There are plenty of cases of rebreather fatalities due to hypoxia with the body resting on the bottom found with the mouthpiece (called a DSV or BOV) still in the mouth and no water in the lungs. Not an exceptional circumstance and perhaps even most likely, although hypoxia on open-circuit is much less familiar to me than closed circuit. However, I'm not aware of any hyperoxia CCR fatality where the mouthpiece remained in mouth, it will always be spit out at the onset of the event.

Unless the diver is using a head strap (aka gag strap).

 

[BoltSnap]

These aren't the same "Dudas" as the ones in NJ, Evelyn Dudas relatives, are they?

 

[tomcatbubba]

These aren't the same "Dudas" as the ones in NJ, Evelyn Dudas relatives, are they?

Yes.

 

[Marie13]

These aren't the same "Dudas" as the ones in NJ, Evelyn Dudas relatives, are they?

The littles were her grandchildren.

 

[BoltSnap]

Yes.

The littles were her grandchildren.

That's very very terrible.

With all of the blaming and analysis taking place above, I get sick to my stomach when I go back to remember the kids and the parents. I have kids around the same age, I'd rather die before I see any thing like this happen to them.

I pray to Allah help the family and watch over them.