29 Dec 10 Fiji Diving Incident (Amy O'Maley Fatality), Part I

[TexasKaren68]

Wow, this certainly would make me think twice about scuba diving where there aren't top notch medical facilities available. Also, to make sure and research dive ops and get recommendations from people here on Scubaboard. If nobody has heard of them (or they've had fatalities caused by negligence), I'm not diving with them.

What a sad story

 

[Qnape]

Thank you for posting your detailed eyewitness account. I am very sorry that you and the other divers on the boat were placed into such difficult circumstances, and am concerned not only about the actions of the dive op but about the effect of such a tragedy on you and the other witnesses.

I have also been considering a trip to Fiji within a few years; I will seek as much information as possible on the dive ops I consider utilizing. Take care, and please consider posting any future update relating to the investigations / actions of PADI and the Australian high commission.

 

[tddfleming]

I am very sorry for the events that you all had to go through, my heart goes out to you. I do have a couple of questions that may not be able to be answered but I would like to throw them out there. Correct me if I misunderstood anything from your account.

1. Where was Amy's buddy(ies)? It seems that she was the only one OOA, did no one have air to share? Were they all seperated in the current? It seems that there were 4 including Amy that went in as a team, was this not the case?

2. I am assuming Dale was her husband or boyfriend? Not that this makes any difference, just trying to figure who is who.

3.What was Amy's experience of diving? How many dives?

It appears that your story has much to learn from:

Check for available life support equipment on boat.
Check if people operating the boat have any skills in case of any problems? Their action plan in place.
Find closest hospital before boarding boat.
Go back to better basic planning for any trip: hospital numbers, local contacts, emergency numbers, closest chamber, closet hospital.
Emergency plan of boat.
Insist that a drive brief take place or ask many questions of the crew.

 

[BadabingM3]

My prayers to Amy's family and for her. It's a very sad and very emotional thing to go through. Thanks for sharing this story.

I must say, from the events and how they unfolded, this operations was sub par and pretty much a cluster F*&K with DM's that don't give a damn and are taking their job a bit to easy. No briefings? Making everyone swim against a strong current? Not parring up people in groups of two, WTF!

It sounded to me like Amy was probebly inexperianced and it would have been best if the dive team would have recognised that and parred her up with at least an experiance couple. Man, that story makes me sick and angry.

I myself am not an inexperianced diver but only hold a PADI AOW and hope to continue with more certs. But I fly for a living in the USAF and never, ever do I step out the door without some kind of a brief, a plan, even on a simple training or cross country flight. I am a rescue helicopter flight engineer instructor so the basics of instructing, watching the new guys/gals, the know how, the "situational awarness" is there and I carry that over to my dives when I do dive.

It must have taken allot not to go over there and kick the **** out of one of those DM's for being such ignorant morans. I just dove in Dahab, Egypt early summer and talked to some folks there and how they had some less than desirable experiances with some dive shops. I must say I and my group lucked out because the dive shop and instructors we had were on top of safety and care of the group.

Hope that dive shop gets shut down because this will for sure happen again. I guess a good lesson here is if you start to see a dive operation is screwing it up by the numbers, speak up and express your concerns and be directive. Maybe take someone you see that is inexperianced and take them along with you and watch out for them. I know allot of us don't want to baby sit someone you don't know but after reading this, I know I'll remember this story and keep an eye out in the dive group. Hope someone would do the same for me our my loved ones.

Plan your dive, dive your plan.

 

[tddfleming]

Aussie diver's last moments
By SHALVEEN CHAND
Thursday, February 10, 2011

Update: 3:04PM AUSTRALIAN tourist Amy O'Maley was within reach of the boat and told to stay above water but went under minutes after surfacing, it was revealed yesterday.

Tafazul Gani, a local man who was part of the dive team on the fatal tour to Beqa last December, recalled the tragic moments before Ms OMaley disappeared.

"I was exhausted from the water activities through the week so on that particular dive, I opted not to dive," said Mr Gani.

He and Amy O'Maley's boyfriend, Dale Kennedy, stayed on the boat with the captain.

"The dive instructor surfaced some 50 or 60 metres away from where the boat was, saying the currents were strong. He said he would go back down and get Amy to surface," he said. "But she surfaced on the other side of the boat.

After she disappeared in the water, he dived again and returned with her but it was too late.

The O'Maley family in Australia is awaiting answers from Fiji authorities. The police in Fiji have opted to stay quiet on the matter until investigation has been completed.

Full story: In tomorrow's Fiji Times

 

[tddfleming]

Oz diver Amy O'Maley, 28, dies in Fijian water, poor emergency assistance - What's On Ningbo

Oz diver Amy O'Maley, 28, dies in Fijian water, poor emergency assistance
Updated: 08 Feb 2011Share this news?...Click box
Read more on Amy O'Maley Beqa Lagoon Dale Kennedy PADI

Amy O'Maley, 28,from Terrey Hills, died while scuba diving in Fiji in December.
Her family are still waiting for answers about her death.
pic facebook Picture: Facebook Source: The Daily Telegraph

A MAN has told how he desperately tried to save his girlfriend's life after she died in a scuba diving accident in Fiji.

Amy O'Maley, 28, had been diving around a coral reef at Beqa Lagoon on December 29 when she became separated from her instructor.

The guide later resurfaced leaving Amy alone underwater.

Amy's boyfriend Dale Kennedy told Channel Nine News:"That's when panic stations happened for me."

"I was just searching for Amy, searching for her bubbles."

Amy, from Terrey Hills, was found 18m down and brought to the surface unconscious.

As Dale and other tourist divers tried to revive her the dive crew from joined them in rendering assistance as the boat made the 20 minute journey back to shore, witnesses said.

A van was waiting to take Amy to the local hospital because no ambulance was available, the tourist divers were told.

But the van was unsuitable for the 10 minute ride to hospital because there was not enough room for others to continue administering CPR - so the tourists called a taxi.

Hospital staff were unable to revive Amy.

Her family is awaiting the results of a post-mortem but police say she died of asphyxiation.

Fijian police are continuing their investigation. Diver training organisation PADI is also investigating but says it will keep its conclusions confidential, even from Amy's family.

SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

I wasn't going to comment on this because there are still a lot of emotions about the incident, but I feel I must.
First of all, my condolences to Amy's family, her boyfriend and her friends.
Two things to mention, first Amy was obviously an inexperianced diver and I know that you(DiveTheSeamount) must have asked yourself this a hunderd times by now, was there anything you could have done to prevent this from happening?
Secondly, I would like to see Scubaboard come up with some forum like Trip Advisor that divers could rate dive charter operations and add there comments. Individual comments and ratings about dive ops don't carry much weight but when the ratings are averaged out you can get a much better idea of the performance of a certain dive operator This might go a long way to putting unsafe charter pirates out of business.
ZDD

 

[TSandM]

A couple of comments . . . my guess is that they did not defibrillate her because she had no electrical activity in her heart (asystole). I would be surprised, given the timeline that you describe, if anything else had been true.

I think one of the biggest lessons here is that one takes some risks that often aren't thought about, when one dives in poorly developed areas of the world. Medical care as Americans and Europeans and Australians understand it is not likely to be available in third world settings. How many of us have asked the dive operator where we are, where the nearest chamber is? How many have asked to see the oxygen kit, or even asked if there was one on board? (I have dived off small boats in the South Pacific where there was no safety equipment at all.)

There are a lot of things to talk about in terms of dive planning and dive execution here, but they're really the usual things -- no gas plan, buddy separation, and perhaps a lack of assessment of suitability of the dive for the diver.

I can see some things the dive op ought to change -- better oxygen gear, for one! -- but I'm not sure why you feel they should have shut down. It is not the responsibility of the dive operator to ensure that people dive as buddies, or maintain gas reserves; that's the responsibility of the individual divers. If someone is not capable of executing or safely aborting a dive if they lose the dive guide, they probably shouldn't be diving in limited viz and high current. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but I just think the vehemence with which you condemn the dive operator is perhaps a little excessive.

 

[Doubler]

First I would like to pass my condolences on to her family. This poor girl was obviously a new diver taken on a "Trust Me" dive and bad things happened with fatal results.
As Lynne stated many of us dive in places with ziltch, nada, zero medical facilities available with the exception of what is on the boat. Socorro and Cocos come to mind. Experienced divers know this and accept the risk. New divers, sometimes on their first trip out of the country, don't realize that the medical care experienced at home is not the same in a developing country. Who is thinking of the standard of available medical facilities when they have a vacation planned in paradise? A lot of times crews are not trained and have substandard equipment on board. How many times have we read stories about the tourist dentist, doctor or nurse saving a life while the crew stood by and watched clueless as to what to do. What is sad and true is that there are hundreds of these operations in the world. In many cases the DM is a DM in name only. Been diving the area for years, good critter spotter but zero training in handling a emergency. Think I'll stop now.

Can any one explain why PADI keeps results of investigation confidential from the family? Is it a liability issue?

 

[DandyDon]

Same accident, previous thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/364754-tourist-dies-fiji.html