10 Years on From Fatal Dive - Lessons to be Learnt

[Jan Kruger]

Thank you for sharing the details of such a tragic event. It was well documented & communicated.

Please excuse my lack of night diving experience - just one or 2 comments.

To me it seems that a night dive of 30 minutes or more is quite long.
Diving night dives to a depth of about 20 m for any length of time requires some skill except if there is a lot to see at night in that area.

 

[fisheater]

Please excuse my lack of night diving experience - just one or 2 comments.

To me it seems that a night dive of 30 minutes or more is quite long.
Diving night dives to a depth of about 20 m for any length of time requires some skill except if there is a lot to see at night in that area.

There's no reason for night dives to be either shorter or longer than day dives at the same site. There is often lots to see, as critter who "hide" during the day are often active at night and visa versa.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have recently had some thoughts on IPE due to experiences recovering from surgery.

If you do some research on the general term pulmonary edema, you will find that there are several kinds, and they do not involve immersion in water. I was warned edema in general and pulmonary edema in particular were potential issues during my recovery, and a chest x-ray early on showed a problem. Consequently, I have some experience with it. For me, it comes in various degrees of severity. It can go from not noticeable to very noticeable in a day--or even during a day. By "very noticeable," I mean that when it is bad, I start huffing and puffing with minor exercise. I have trouble catching my breath. Early on, coughing fits were a problem as my lungs tried to expel the fluids in there. As I recover, this happens more and more rarely, and I hope to be completely free of this problem before too long.

Because of the warnings I received and my experience, I know the symptoms, and I know what to expect when I recognize them. In contrast, I would imagine that people who have begun one of the forms of pulmonary edema that have other causes would not be so alert to symptoms, and they would not realize they are having a minor case that day. Maybe they're a little more out of breath than normal and don't know why.

I wonder if people who suffered from IPE were not already having symptoms of pulmonary edema before they got into the water and didn't know it. Rather than triggering an episode, the circumstances of the dive may have exacerbated a problem the diver was already having.

 

[Gene]

Sorry to hear what happened. All of the 3 IPE victims are women. Is that a coincidence? Is there an IPE case happened to man?

I had an IPE episode a couple of years ago at a local N. Florida dive site (spring) and it was a terrible experience. I believe I put a post about it on here as well as the cave diving forum. My cardiologist said it was likely caused by a corona virus but I assume not covid 19 as this was April 2019. I was cleared for diving about six months afterwards and have resumed. I just don't push things as hard and I haven't done any trimix dives since then.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Thank you for sharing the details of such a tragic event. It was well documented & communicated.

Please excuse my lack of night diving experience - just one or 2 comments.

To me it seems that a night dive of 30 minutes or more is quite long.
Diving night dives to a depth of about 20 m for any length of time requires some skill except if there is a lot to see at night in that area.

Night dives are normally limited by charter operators to xx minutes, most would be 60 minutes. This is mainly to ensure all divers are going to ascend around the same time and so they won't have to look for missing people or wonder when they might come up.

In this case it was a shore dive. While when doing this dive in the day we would normally do anywhere from 70 to 105 minutes, at night we usually limit to 60 minutes as we have dinner afterwards and the places we go would be closed if we went longer. The only time we would do a dive of 30 minutes would be to a square profile site of over 30 minutes. For shore dives in Sydney, only one I know of would have a normal dive time of under 60 minutes. That one is to 27 metres.

As to night diving to 20 metres for any length of time, the people on this dive had an average of well over 1000 dives each and the buddy pair closer to 1500 dives. Personally I have dived this location over 550 times, so I think that I know it fairly well by now. The same for the buddy pair, regular divers here. In any case, the depth and time had no relevance to what happened.

 

[Dan]

Has there been an IPE case in warm water (>25 C) diving?

 

[Centrals]

To me it seems that a night dive of 30 minutes or more is quite long.
Diving night dives to a depth of about 20 m for any length of time requires some skill except if there is a lot to see at night in that area.

You will be surprised on what you will see on a night dive!!!!!
have you even seen a parrot fish sleeping in her own cocoon?

 

[clownfishsydney]

Has there been an IPE case in warm water (>25 C) diving?

Probably, but it predominantly occurs in colder water. Also, it can affect males but again, females seem more susceptible. Older people also seem to be more susceptible, although fit 18 year old soldiers have been known to be affected. It can occur even if you are only standing in waist deep water or shallower.

 

[Rob9876]

Sorry to read about the accident. I found the mention that IPE could possibly be triggered by drinking too much water to be interesting -- when viewed along with fact that IPEs are on the rise (as has been the focus on hydrating before you feel thirsty) and that young athletes/soldiers are experiencing IPEs (for whom I would generally assume hydration has been stressed). Just my uneducated, non-expert musings, but perhaps I will reduce the amount of water I drink before dives a bit.

 

[dmaziuk]

IPE in athletes and IPE in divers isn't quite the same: the original triathlon cases, at least, involved "iron men" people in the races that's kill a regular flesh and blood person in the first 5 minutes. They did pre-hydrate for the race, but that too is not teh same as regular folks drinking a lot of water.