Error A Story of Poor Judgment

[NothingClever]

Dumbfounded…

A technical instructor does not share with his agency or his more advanced technical instructor any info about his previous DCS or PFO, goes on a Trimix training dive and ends up in the hospital.

Sounds like the junior instructor’s ambitions far exceeded his aptitude. Clearly, there’s an integrity and hubris problem blinding the junior instructor from acknowledging he’s putting (and has been putting) others at risk.

Wow…good thing it’s just a story.

Accident Analysis: a story of poor judgement and broken promises – Dive RAID International

diveraid.com

 

[FloridaMan1974]

That's pretty bad. I'd be pretty ticked if one of my students in a deco class withheld prior history of DCI/etc.

 

[iointerrupt]

The student can't admit "oh yeh, I get bent every other dive", the whole thing would be cancelled. They knew the dive they were about to do, and were satisfied with the personal risk to themselves.

Furthermore, they knew the conditions for the entire duration of the dive, they could have thumbed it if they thought things were too extreme for them.

What exactly is the lesson here? Mostly it looks like 20/20 hindsight, going "oh yeh, of course we shouldn't have gone diving in bad current". And next week you'll be out there again, looking at the current going "yeh it isn't too bad". I know I would be.

 

[The Chairman]

It's a common occurrence. I have met several people who even brag about not being candid about their health issues. It's hard to accept limitations, especially if you believe you're invincible. But diving is all about limits and we ignore or deny those limits at our own risk. Honesty is not just the best policy: it's the only policy. Hey, at 67 I'm old AF. I have no business doing stupid deep along with stupid long deco. I've finally come to grips with those new limitations and will LIVE by them. Know your limits. Honor your limits. Be open to discussing your limits with your dive partners and/or instructors.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Condemning the individual diver is one way to look at this but would stop short of finding the root cause. Going by what's written, we likely would have landed on risk acceptance as a causal factor in an accident analysis as @iointerrupt mentioned. The real question then would be, what made the diver's actions seem like a good idea at the time? What systems support and reward this type of risk-taking behavior despite knowing the potential consequences?

Best regards,
DDM

 

[rjack321]

I see this a fair amount and sometimes I am the "offending" diver host. The visiting instructor went on a trust me dive condition-wise. Oftentimes you do that with a trusted local (class or not) and sometimes the trusted local's advice is wrong or maybe I just screw up and mis-plan the dive. Guests have no basis to question it or even cross-check my plan until its all going pear shaped.

 

[tursiops]

Wow…good thing it’s just a story.

With at least one glaring error:
"the Gulf Stream as it blasts along Florida’s east coast on its way to the British Isles and Northern Europe"
Be advised the Gulf Stream does NOT flow to the British Isles and Northern Europe.
Makes me wonder about other errors in the story and the conclusions.

 

[Whitrzac]

Fake news.

 

[Sidemount_Syndicate]

With at least one glaring error:
"the Gulf Stream as it blasts along Florida’s east coast on its way to the British Isles and Northern Europe"
Be advised the Gulf Stream does NOT flow to the British Isles and Northern Europe.
Makes me wonder about other errors in the story and the conclusions.

must be true...

 

[The Chairman]

Condemning the individual diver is one way to look at this but would stop short of finding the root cause.

Is it? Consider this excerpt from the linked article:

"The required reports were filed and during the resulting investigation, it was discovered the student had a history of DCS and other medical challenges including a suspected PFO. However, these episodes were never mentioned in medical waivers, or pre-course conversations, or dive briefings. Nor had incident reports about them ever been submitted to the agency."​

The diver has come out on Facebook, also citing this article. I'm not impressed. He was bent multiple times and thought he might have a PFO before he made this dive. No, I don't know who it is, but certain parties have contacted me about it because he shared it on Facebook and they're worried that could be carried over here. Apparently, he's not happy with RAID and others for his predicament, so the facts seem to be changing. Meh. It's human nature to justify your bad actions.

If you're bent more than once, and they're neuro-hits, get checked for a PFO. If you think they have a PFO, don't do those kind of dives until you are sure you don't have one or you have it closed. FFS, get it closed. Don't put yourself or your buddies at risk until you do. Don't be cavalier about it, AND tell your dive buddy and trainer of your medical issues before you splash. I told tech dive buddies that I had no idea if I had a PFO. "Why do you think you have one?" "I don't. I just don't know." They would ask me a few questions, like Doug Ebersole asked me when I confessed my fears. They all allay my fears and tell me I don't have any of the symptoms so relax. Two years ago, a slight heart murmur was heard, so off to the cardiologist I went. Guess what I had him check? Yah, whether or not I had a PFO or not. No, I don't. It's my unschooled opinion that all tech divers should be checked for that.

So, at the risk of sounding like a broken record: Know your limits. Honor your limits. Then communicate those limits to your instructors and buddies. Diving is optional. There's nothing down there worth dying for.