Accident at Lake Rawlings Sunday 05/27/2012

[mheaster]

Female diver pulled from Lake Rawlings in Brunswick | WTVR.com




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http://wtvr.com/2012/05/27/a-woman-almost-drowns-in-a-local-lake/

 

[DandyDon]

Seems that she was in a class: A woman rescued from the bottom of a local lake | WTVR.com

BRUNKSWICK CO., Va. (WTVR) – A woman spends Sunday night in the hospital after her trip to the lake almost turned deadly.
Sources told CBS 6 Senior Reporter Wayne Covil that she was taking a scuba diving lesson with her husband at Lake Rawlings in Brunswick County.
Lake officials say the woman, who is in her mid thirties, disappeared from the group Sunday afternoon.
When they found her, she was at the bottom of the lake and no longer breathing. Her rescuers performed CPR until she could be med-flighted to VCU Medical Center.
Officials say the woman did have a pulse when she was taken away.

 

[TechDeep]

I'm here at the lake this weekend. Unfortunately despite all the rescue efforts, the young lady passed away. Thoughts and prayers are with the family. She was a student on her third check out dive at a platform around 30 feet. She somehow became separated from her group, and was obviously having a problem of some sort. The platform is close to a cliff that drops down to about 50 feet in that area of the lake, which is where she was found. Her computer indicated that she had been underwater for 119 minutes, and still showed around 900 psi. I'm pretty sure of these depths as I was in this exact area of the lake yesterday.

I got this information from a reliable source, and it's all I know at this time. I'm sure more information will be forthcoming. I know if this were me, I would want as much information brought out about the details so that others may learn.

 

[TexasKaren68]

Based on the comments below the news article, it doesn't sound like she made it. Such a tragedy - she was very young.

I heard she was an open water student, but that is just hearsay. A friend of mine was at the lake this weekend and told me about it.

 

[BauderDesign]

She was an open water student. I wasn't there but one of the members of the rescue team told me about the incident. It's a very tragic incident and my thoughts and prayers are with her family and everyone that was affected by this horrible accident.

 

[DandyDon]

Ok, I am not an Instructor and have never dived that lake, but something is wrong when an Instructor loses an OW student like that. Something...??

I understand that some fault could have been the deceased to find her drowned with 900 psi, suspecting that panic might have lead her to spit out here reg - perhaps she was overweighted as OW students often are, slipped over the edge, failed to get buoyant - lots of guessing here...?

I saw a local Instructor giving a class in Bottomless Lakes SP NM once when the vis was zero. I got out, and wondered about an Instructor who would take OW students into such soup? This site advertises 30-60 ft viz, but whether it was bad at the time and this Instructor took students in anyway, or if it was good and he still lost her - something failed.

The news story I quoted above said her husband was there, but did not say if he was a student or what?

 

[dyverchick]

Has anyone heard what dive shop the Female diver was associated with? I understand she was a student?

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Very sorry to hear that she passed away.

 

[psumike]

Firstly, my heart goes out to the family, instructor, class and rescuers.
We were on site with a couple of students ready to do their last OW dive for certification when this occurred. We primarily got out of the way as there were many hands helping. We did take O2 down. (They likely had a few hours worth at the ready.)

Facts will be forth coming and hopefully folks can learn from it.

Conditions were OK. Visibility was likely 20 feet. This drops in some areas as there is a lot of training and thus some stirring of silt in places. Temps at the surface were 70 with a thermacline at 20, dropping it to 60. The quarry stays cold at depth as it is spring fed, so I am sure there was another thermacline.

What I heard on the scene is that the victim and her husband were both in the OW class.

The location is fairly distant from any EMS three jurisdictions responed and all arrived at near the same time, about 30 minutes from the call. The medical flight arrived a few minutes later.

Rescues got her out of the water at the closest point to where she was found, had a backboard and O2 ready. CPR was started and continued until EMS arrived and took over.

The local Sheriff department was on the scene for a while and took statements from those directly involved.

Our students finished, but the instructors took time to tell them what was going on and the few facts that were known at the time. A couple parents at the scene (students were 12 & 14) was a little concerned and it was explained that the skills and actions taught, reviewed, practiced and on the test were to avoid incidents.

Prayers for all involved.

 

[dnbsean]

I just spoke with my friend who was in the group of OW students where the wife went missing. It was their 3rd dive (day 2 - dive 1) and she was missing for a while before the search began. I was very concerned to hear the overall impressions my friend had about how the entire experience was.
Hearing that she was lodged under something and the only reason they found her was because of her brightly colored fin makes my heart ache.
My condolences go out to the husband and the family of the diver who passed away.
I hope everyone involved is doing okay having witnessed such a horrible accident.

 

[wangchung]

Has anyone heard what dive shop the Female diver was associated with? I understand she was a student?

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Very sorry to hear that she passed away.

Her instructor was the owner of Splash Dive Center in Alexandria Va.