Children die playing with scuba gear left in pool - Jensen Beach, Florida

[mderrick]

This 'story / word of mouth truth' passed around back in the day - by some of the big 'names' in tech diving instructing back then - with the reason given being that, besides having no oxygen to sustain life, the pure helium did something to the lungs that made it hard if not impossible for the uptake of oxygen post incidence to happen quick enough to save / revive said person. Although I had no intent of breathing pure helium, I believed it at the time, given whom was saying it.

"Back in the day" when the use of helium was first introduced to what is now called technical diving by the recreational diving community we had a lot of suspicions and anecdotes about mix, similar to the furor that surrounded nitrox when it was introduced to sport diving. I can recall as late as early 2000's that I was still teaching to use as little helium as possible and switch off it as soon as possible. Today our understanding, although far from perfect, is much better and opinions regarding the use of helium mixtures in diving have made a complete 180. Now the saying for the use of helium in breathing gas goes something like "helium is your friend and more helium is friendlier." So much so that the use of hyperoxic helium mixes are available as sport diving classes offered by the training agencies. I routinely use normoxic trimix (i.e. 21% O2, 35% He) for all my sport diving. Commercial and military divers have been using ultra rich heliox for decades. There are no physiological issues breathing any amount of helium in a mix as long as the PPO2 is appropriate.

 

[Wookie]

How did it happen?

You said it wasn't marked as helium. Did the owner put it aside without markings at some point, and then got it mixed up with a tank that was expected to contain a life-sustaining gas? It wasn't analyzed or labelled, and regs went onto it?

It could have gone like this: the father walked into the homeowners garage, grabbed a cylinder and regs for the kids to play with in the pool. The homeowner may have said “Be sure to check the gas”. There may be a witness to these events.

*MY ASSUMPTION*. The gas was never checked, or the miscommunication was that the tank was checked for pressure, not content.

*my thoughts*. If I were a trimix blender blending gas at home (I am) and had blends of oxygen and nitrogen in the shot-blasted cylinders, and kept the pure O2 in the green cylinders, and the helium in the yellow cylinders, I would consider them marked. With that said, do not come in my garage and suck on a cylinder without analyzing the gas first.

this is a horrific tragedy, and I want to puke. I know Evie, and have met Suzie and Rodney at the trade shows. I do not know the homeowner except by reputation.

 

[Belzelbub]

As mentioned previously, hobbyist blenders do indeed sometimes 'stash' unused pure helium in spare scuba cylinders rather than pay bottle rental fees. Proper labeling is critical, but in my experience labelling alone is not sufficient because others may not understand the meaning of a contents label alone. How many sport divers would understand a label "He 100" or even a label "Tx 10/50"? I am a gas blending instructor and I teach my students to also segregate and chain or otherwise secure any cylinder containing anything other than sport diving gases (It is also an OSHA safety regulation as well.)

That’s a good question. I would suggest that divers with no EAN experience would have no clue what it means. Divers who paid attention in EAN class might at least figure out that it means something important. They may not make out what it means, but hopefully would realize that it might be something they aren’t qualified for. Divers who have paid attention, and heard of technical gas mixes such as this might be able to figure out the labels. I’ve never taken a trimix class, and to my knowledge, have never seen a tank filled with trimix. However, I’m familiar with the gas and reasons for its use. If I saw He 100, I would know what it means, primarily from high school chemistry class. If I saw Tx 10/50, I would guess that it meant the gas contains 10% O2, 50% He, and 40% N2.

The segregation and chaining is a good practice. Incompatible valves would absolutely have prevented this, but probably not as feasible with scuba tanks, though DIN vs Yoke might be a possibility.

 

[sheeper]

All those involved in this tragic event are well known here in the local SoFla dive community and known personally to me. I will not engage in any of the theorizing but instead just ask that we give the families love and compassion during this horrible time.

 

[John the Pom]

Your heart goes out to the families involved. What a terrible, tragic accident. These poor people's lives will be shattered, but I hope in time they are able to find some peace. There are no words ...

 

[kotik]

This is an awful thing. I believe the Dudas family has been more affected by scuba accidents than any other I'm aware of.

 

[Dan]

I definitely wouldn't jump straight to it being the gas mix that caused two children to drown together. That seems like one of the more unlikely scenarios.

I see as more likely, that one of the kids went down and put the reg in their mouth but inhaled a bit of water and choked on it setting up a cascade where one accidental drowning turned into two when the other child tried to save them and panicked, leading to the second drowning. Having experience on scuba would make this more possible because scuba helps us overcome the fear of breathing in while in a water environment but if you take a big inhale and it is wet, you can inhale water and start violently coughing. Heck, I can cough on the saliva produced by a cough drop or on a sip of water if I'm not paying attention.

Then there is the issue of horseplay and children failing to recognize the seriousness of what they are doing.

I suspect the autopsy will be helpful but we may never hear those results.

Would choking & panicking leave a child at the bottom of the pool with regulator still in her mouth?

From this 25WPBF news video, Two young siblings die after possible drowning incident in Jensen Beach the regulator was still in the 9 years old’s mouth on the bottom of the pool, which could also mean that AGE would not be the cause either.

 

[boulderjohn]

Would choking & panicking leave a child at the bottom of the pool with regulator still in her mouth?

From this article, Two young siblings die after possible drowning incident in Jensen Beach the regulator was still in the 9 years old’s mouth on the bottom of the pool, which could also mean that AGE would not be the cause either.

Read through the thread. The cause of death has been determined.

 

[Marie13]

Would choking & panicking leave a child at the bottom of the pool with regulator still in her mouth?

From this article, Two young siblings die after possible drowning incident in Jensen Beach the regulator was still in the 9 years old’s mouth on the bottom of the pool, which could also mean that AGE would not be the cause either.

Where in that article do you get the reg was in the 9 up’s mouth? I didn’t watch the accompanying video, though.

 

[Belzelbub]

Where in that article do you get the reg was in the 9 up’s mouth? I didn’t watch the accompanying video, though.

It is stated in the video. Video had the usual lack of knowledge about the gas that is normally in a scuba tank, but that’s pretty much expected.