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

[John the Pom]

CAGE is a serious hazard in a swimming pool if the person doesn't understand basic dive physics, especially for children:

Should children be SCUBA diving?: Cerebral arterial gas embolism in a swimming pool - PubMed

 

[ginti]

CAGE is a serious hazard in a swimming pool if the person doesn't understand basic dive physics, especially for children:

Should children be SCUBA diving?: Cerebral arterial gas embolism in a swimming pool - PubMed

Hi @John the Pom , this is the first time I heard of CAGE, and since I cannot open the article you linked (only the abstract is available) and I didn't manage to find explanations on the internet, I was wondering whether you could provide some info:
- What is the difference between CAGE and other kinds of AGE?
- When specifically do you develop CAGE?
- I read that a single breath of helium can cause CAGE: how?

Maybe @Dr Simon Mitchell and @Duke Dive Medicine can help as well?

Thanks a lot!

 

[telemonster]

I swear there was a similar issue a while ago (I probably read it on here) where someone gave their kid a pony that was full of argon for drysuit inflation. They were able to revive though, but it was a close call.

 

[mderrick]

While this terrible event deserves our empathy... what it does not deserve is a discussion of blame, given so little information about the circumstances. Police reports and subsequent news reporting of diving related accidents are notoriously unreliable in their details. The children were raised on a farm by parents, and even their grandmother, who are well known to the community as experienced divers. Dive shops routinely host "bubble blowing" pool events for children in this age range. Since they were visitors where the accident occurred, it's possible that the cylinder and regulator were provided by someone other than the parent. Technical diving history is filled with many accidents by exceptionally experienced divers related to breathing gas mixture errors in labelling and switching. Few divers would be aware that, compared to an adult, children are at increased risk for rapid oxygen desaturation leading to hypoxia as a result of higher metabolism and lower residual oxygen storage capacity. What multi-tasking parent hasn't had the experience of having their attention distracted from their children for "just a moment", or relied upon one child to watch the other?

Their family will endure this burden forever, I see no point adding to their pain.

 

[Celt]

There’s no mystery for me. 2 children were left in the water unsupervised with diving gear and that’s what killed them.

 

[beester]

I grew up like this. My parents didn't dive but my aunt and uncle did (his instructor license was even signed of by JJ Cousteau). I basically grew up with them, always in the water, always accompanying them when they were doing shore dives (staying on the shore). I must have been 8 when I first breathed of a reg underwater and by the time I was 10 my aunt who was a pool guard, would take me to the pool when it was closed... and would put me in the water with a scuba tank and reg and tell me to have fun while she cleaned (vacuumed) the pool (olympic size). Not exactly supervision either in a big size pool.

Dangerous, maybe, but if you know about not holding your breath coming up, are a good swimmer, know the basic function of a reg... and specifically if you are 2 (so 1 can watch the other) I don't see any inherent risk. But yes these were different times.

Add an hypoxic mix in the equation and it becomes a different tragic accident! I follow the hypothesis of an unmarked bottom stage with a hypoxic mix being accidently used. The children would just pass out, wouldn't have felt a thing, and then drowned. It doesn't take very long breathing a very hypoxic mix before you lose consciousness.

A real heartfelt sorry and condoleances to the parent. I can't imagine what kind of pain they are going through at this moment.

I'm going to remember this, having a small boy, and having a lot of stages lying around (which are marked but nevertheless).

 

[DanBMW]

I sincerely hope that we learn what happened so that it can be shared and never repeated. The parents and their friend now have a life sentence of pain that will probably never go away. I wish them mercy...

 

[kensuf]

While this terrible event deserves our empathy... what it does not deserve is a discussion of blame, given so little information about the circumstances. Police reports and subsequent news reporting of diving related accidents are notoriously unreliable in their details. The children were raised on a farm by parents, and even their grandmother, who are well known to the community as experienced divers. Dive shops routinely host "bubble blowing" pool events for children in this age range. Since they were visitors where the accident occurred, it's possible that the cylinder and regulator were provided by someone other than the parent. Technical diving history is filled with many accidents by exceptionally experienced divers related to breathing gas mixture errors in labelling and switching. Few divers would be aware that, compared to an adult, children are at increased risk for rapid oxygen desaturation leading to hypoxia as a result of higher metabolism and lower residual oxygen storage capacity. What multi-tasking parent hasn't had the experience of having their attention distracted from their children for "just a moment"?

Their family will endure this burden forever, I see no point adding to their pain.

Well said. My heart aches for the family.

 

[Marie13]

I sincerely hope that we learn what happened so that it can be shared and never repeated. The parents and their friend now have a life sentence of pain that will probably never go away. I wish them mercy...

Here’s an easy one: always label your tanks accurately.

 

[mderrick]

Here’s an easy one: always label your tanks accurately.

Not as simple as it sounds because a common assumption in the community is that unlabeled tanks contain AIR (i.e. 21%). But at Fill Express we saw a great many tanks containing something other than AIR we were certain had previously been properly labeled yet were presented for filling with no label (sometimes removed by well meaning individuals or inadvertently scraped off during handling or obscured due to immersion; there were a great many explanations for the absence of a label on tank following diving.)

From the outset of Fill Express, EVERY tank was analyzed and labeled before leaving the premises including cylinders filled with AIR. (Plenty of customers were annoyed by having to analyze AIR fills, objecting that it was a pointless time waster.) Unheard of at the time, but as gases other than air have become commonplace in diving should we now always assume any tank missing an analysis label contains an unknown gas rather than air?