An Open Letter of Personal Perspective to the Diving Industry by NetDoc

[The Chairman]

I am curious why you are willing to give Carney the benefit of the doubt in this case.

I think we all do. Most of us see this as a sad, sad mistake. I like SDI. I like Carney. I like PADI too. We all hate it when we see mom and dad fight like this. It makes us feel uneasy, like it's our fault.

if for example, someone is hypertensive and going toward the surface with the reg out of their mouth, can't quite get there and sink, they must have died because they were hypertensive. Can't possibly be any other explanation. Right.

According to DAN, the most frequent cause of deaths while Scuba diving are preexisting medical conditions. To put that in layman's terms: they died regardless of being on Scuba. I'm not so sure why you're trying to rule this possibility out? I can tell you that IF that were my son, he would not have been allowed to dive given his recent illness. As for assigning blame, that's what the court case is all about. The parents want to blame everyone but themselves and I disagree with that.

 

[redacted]

Was there any evidence of a respiratory impairment incident during the dive contributing to the accident? Is such an incident something that should be expected to show up in an autopsy?

 

[RJP]

Again, why are we indicting the child and assigning a cause of death simply because he may have had asthma?

No one's indicting the child. The indictment is of the several adults who allowed a child with a known/potential contraindication to diving to participate in the DSD. (And please don't make yourself sound even more naive than have by saying that he "didn't have a diagnosis of asthma." A.) The one passage you cited didn't say he wasn't diagnosed, but rather made the point that no spirometry had been conducted to quantify disease-severity. This is almost never done for childhood asthmatics because the is no reason to do so. B.) Regardless of rigorous Dx criteria or not... the parents and multiple healthcare professionals BELIEVED the child had asthma. Why did they not proceed accordingly?

The cause of death was drowning. The pre-existing medical condition should have kept him out of the water. Had that happened, the poor child would not have drowned... because he would not have been in the water.

Ironically... his asthma - had it been properly documented - could have saved his life.

 

[boulderjohn]

I am curious why you are willing to give Carney the benefit of the doubt in this case. Suspending my belief that he knowingly penned a letter full of lies, as a person in a highly visible leadership position within the industry he has an obligation to be extremely thoughtful with his public statements. That bar is at its highest when he is publicly attacking a competitor with highly damning allegations. Layer on the fact that he knew, or should have known, that the timing of his letter's release was bound to raise eyebrows even among those who accept his words at face value and you have a situation that demanded he know all of the details of this case, the issues that are known as fact, and those that are subject to debate.

I received my notice for renewal of my TDI instructor certification in the mail during the second week of December, a month after Carney wrote the letter and long after threads on ScubaBoard and other places detailed the many standards violations that occurred on that dive. Carney's original letter was included in that mailing.

 

[The Chairman]

Was there any evidence of a respiratory impairment incident during the dive contributing to the accident? Is such an incident something that should be expected to show up in an autopsy?

Should it? How would it manifest itself? Can't drowning be seen as a 'respiratory impairment incident'??? I certainly don't know the answers here and am amazed that you seem to.

Carney's original letter was included in that mailing.

That was indeed disheartening. It gave the message that they would be continuing the sham in spite of evidence to the contrary. I get the fun in saying "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!", but most of us want to see a thirst for the truth: not an ill conceived marketing ploy.

 

[Omisson]

Should it? How would it manifest itself? Can't drowning be seen as a 'respiratory impairment incident'??? I certainly don't know the answers here and am amazed that you seem to.

The ME concluded drowning as the cause of death but did not conduct an assessment of contributory or secondary causes -from what seems to be the info supplied to the medical experts it was not an exhaustive autopsy.

 

[redacted]

Should it? How would it manifest itself? Can't drowning be seen as a 'respiratory impairment incident'??? I certainly don't know the answers here and am amazed that you seem to.

That was indeed disheartening. It gave the message that they would be continuing the sham in spite of evidence to the contrary. I get the fun in saying "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!", but most of us want to see a thirst for the truth: not an ill conceived marketing ploy.

If I knew the answer, my post would not have been 2 questions. How could I have been clearer to avoid confusing you?

 

[The Chairman]

If I knew the answer, my post would not have been 2 questions. How could I have been clearer to avoid confusing you?

Mea culpa... I read without understanding. Don't know how I messed that up, but I did. Please forgive me and hopefully someone with medical knowledge will answer our pleas for understanding.

 

[Omisson]

Those medications are prescribed not only for asthma, but suspected RAD's as well. Each year, I have at least 2 or 3 students with prescribed inhalers, but most have not been diagnosed with asthma, they are prescribed them for symptoms of RAD during respiratory illnesses, and most outgrow them. I'm not a doctor, I can't diagnose anyone. I don't know how anyone here can diagnose this child either unless they are a physician who actually examined the child. Even the expert medical witnesses cannot say that this child was in fact asthmatic.

Something that is interesting is that even in these expert medical witness statements above, wheezing never seems to have been documented, even though the illnesses David had would be known to trigger wheezing in a person with asthma. Where are asthma attacks documented?

Again, why are we indicting the child and assigning a cause of death simply because he may have had asthma? By the logic of some people on this thread, if for example, someone is hypertensive and going toward the surface with the reg out of their mouth, can't quite get there and sink, they must have died because they were hypertensive. Can't possibly be any other explanation. Right.

If the instructor felt that people with asthma should arbitrarily not dive, the instructor had the ultimate choice of whether to accept the child or not based on even his short medical form clearly marked with yes to asthma and he may have had access to the BSA medical with more details. The instructor chose to accept the child anyway. The information that the instructor had should also have been a gateway to requesting clarification of the severity, frequency and nature of his illnesses before deciding on a course of action, diving or not.

If it was RADs or Asthma- would it have changed the pulmonary susceptibility or the failure to document it on the medical?

No.

So what - other than trying to look like you are smart- does it matter? What is your point?

The instructor, doctors and family are the only responsible parties for this tragedy- not PADI not the Boy Scouts, and not his 12 year old dive buddy.

Yet the family sued the scouts and PADI but not their doctors - presumably because they knew about the underlying illness- and the Instructor cross sued the other child-the "dive buddy" claiming he had an obligation to rescue the child.... Really?

If it weren't so tragic it would be funny.

 

[Zippsy]

I received my notice for renewal of my TDI instructor certification in the mail during the second week of December, a month after Carney wrote the letter and long after threads on ScubaBoard and other places detailed the many standards violations that occurred on that dive. Carney's original letter was included in that mailing.

This is why I think he purposely lied in the letter. If he was just misinformed and failed to do even the slightest of fact checking, wouldn't he have pulled the letter by now, if not apologized or at least re-drafted it?