CO Death Myth

[Quero]

---

---

A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Several patently off-topic posts have been removed. Others are approaching the limits of civility. Please employ a respectful and friendly tone in your posts or risk losing your posting privileges.

---

 

[DandyDon]

I was a victim of CO poisoning once and it was absolutely no fun.
It wasn't scuba air related, it was a car running in a building that made me sick and I almost didn't make it according to experts I spoke with later. I never lost conciousness but almost. I felt sicker than hell for two days afterward.
If there is CO in tanks in the places mentioned perhaps people are feeling sick without knowing why. I could see how a hit of CO could be misconstrued as a hit of DCS with the symtoms I had and the symtoms described many times as what is DCS.
The very incideous thing about CO is that a person can get out of the toxic environment and then later reach the point of no return. The other very scary thing about CO poisoning is that there is no immediate cure other than pure 02 however since CO blocks 02 absorbtion 100% 02 is basically worthless since you can't absorb it anyway. You just have to hope that it's not bad enough that you don't suffocate to death knowing there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

Sounds like a horrible hit. It also bothers me that only a third of the homes have CO monitors. You can check Google News for monoxide almost anytime and see sad stories, more so in the winter or when power is knocked out by a storm and people run generators. I keep two in my home and a battery powered monitor in my car that I take inside for any overnight trips anywhere, as well as my tank analyzers.

I don't know how long ago your hit was but nowadays if you survive a topside hit, hyperbaric oxygen treatments can help a lot as increasing the PPO helps replace the CO with O2. I think most such done today in the US is for CO.

Surviving a CO hit at depth is more challenging as all you can do at first is come up, yet the increase PPO that kept you alive at depth drops while the CO is bound to your blood - so it gets worse before it can get better. Most of the divers on the infamous Maldives accident did survive, but not all.

 

[Thalassamania]

Everything you ever wanted to know about CO: CO Headquarters - Home Page

 

[ggunn]

Ok ask yourself this.......if NOT CO poisoning what was the cause of death? Dave suggests the news article may have gotten badly translated and it should be CO2 poisoning which would mean faulty equipment. The dive team inspected said equipment and concluded nothing wrong. This also happened if I remember right about 15-20 minutes in which should indicate no way he was OOA. So once again what would be the cause of death?

I have no idea and I don't think you do either. Just because I cannot prove that it wasn't CO poisoning does not prove that it was.

 

[WSOPFAN]

Additional comments related to this very topic have been posted in the A&I thread that further explain how bad air was possible in this case and also support the coroners cause of death.

 

[old gaffer]

Not so. Perhaps you don't remember but the first week of reports from the Scuba Mau incident , including from one of the participants (Heath), was that a terrible down current caused them to exceed planned depths. Even though it was a stupid and crazy dive plan from the start, and down currents had absolutely nothing to do with it.

That caused a crap load of hysteria about how dangerous Cozumel diving was and many others joined in about their terrifying experiences with Cozumel diving. That caused many people to change their minds about diving Cozumel.

Now the same sort of hysteria is popping up about CO in tanks, all the while Cozumel is probably the safest place in the entire world to dive, tank fills included. About that there is no reasonable question.


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Hi Dave. I know what you mean about the dive currents. My BIL and his family want to join us in Cozumel over Christmas 2012 and my BIL wants to get certified so he can dive with me. My spouse does not dive so it would be nice to have someone along on our trips to Coz that can join me on the dive boat and also my wife could hang out with her non-diving sister while we are diving. Well then I mentioned the Scubamau accident when it was first reported as caused by a strong down welling, now my SIL does not want my BIL to get certified and above all not to dive in Cozumel. I have tried telling them that the accident was misreported but my SIL does not buy it. Still working on them to go and for him to get certified.

Gaffer

 

[Christi]

Hi Dave. I know what you mean about the dive currents. My BIL and his family want to join us in Cozumel over Christmas 2012 and my BIL wants to get certified so he can dive with me. My spouse does not dive so it would be nice to have someone along on our trips to Coz that can join me on the dive boat and also my wife could hang out with her non-diving sister while we are diving. Well then I mentioned the Scubamau accident when it was first reported as caused by a strong down welling, now my SIL does not want my BIL to get certified and above all not to dive in Cozumel. I have tried telling them that the accident was misreported but my SIL does not buy it. Still working on them to go and for him to get certified.

Gaffer

You know that you can have them contact me with any questions at all and I will give them references of other students we have certified here in the past that continue to dive with us year after year as well as recent students. They need to not give so much credence to ONE SINGLE false report and they need to understand the entirety of that INCIDENT. It was a poorly conceived, poorly planned, poorly executed dive - that should never have happened to begin with - we all know that by now.

 

[TomZ]

Interesting thread. As a new diver (not really, but an extremely long SI) I find this fascinating. The internet is an amazing place to garner information. One credible source making a case for over-reaction. Another credible source with an opposing view on the same event. Then, another party who seems to enjoy stirring the pot and alienating folks.

FWIW: Was this an instance CO poisoning? I dunno. Maybe, maybe not. Is Cozumel a dangerous place as far as CO content in tanks? Probably no more so than anywhere else, possibly less dangerous than many others too. Am I concerned? A bit. After reading more about CO poisoning I realize the chance of dying from it, is as likely as winning a lottery. Do I play the lottery? Yup. Will I buy a CO tester? Yup. Call me conceited... I think my wife and I are worth $350. I plan on getting Nitrox certified next year, and will buy those testers too.

Thanks to all contributors, from both sides, who are trying to provide useful information, especially Don, Dave and Thalassamania.

 

[mstevens]

So first of all you are saying the article in Por Esto that claimed the coroner concluded on the autopsy that it was due to CO poisoning was a lie and you are saying the autopsy itself is a lie.

There's a difference between lies and misinformation, inaccuracy, mistakes, or even stupidity. I think he's saying it's wrong, not necessarily that it's a lie.

I'd be surprised if a coroner performed the examination. I don't even know if Mexico has coroners. Here in the US a coroner is a political official who is not necessarily a medical examiner, a pathologist, or even a physician.

I've been present at a large number of autopsies as a diener in college and medical school. An autopsy is not at all what many people seem to believe based on TV and movies. It can range from a cursory visual examination to a detailed dissection and lab analysis. However, just like medicine practiced on the living tests can only show what one is looking at - there's no such thing as "complete testing" for everything.

Skin erythema (redness) can indicate a wide range of issues, especially postmortem.

I actually have no information about what might be true here. Neither do you.

 

[mstevens]

Can we get details of the autopsy report, in particular, the COHb levels.

My goodness, I certainly hope not!

An autopsy report is someone's personal, private medical information.