Bermuda: 9/21/07
Skipper: 'Diver died in my arms'
A boat captain has told how an American tourist died in his arms after suffering a heart-attack in the water during a scuba diving trip to North Rock.
Graham Maddocks dived from his boat and tried to rescue stricken diver James Miller when his buddy signalled for help after surfacing, following a 35-minute dive on Wednesday.
He swam the diver back to the boat and performed CPR on the deck, aided by two paramedics and a doctor who were also diving with the group, until the police boat arrived on the scene.
But they were unable to resuscitate the 52-year-old. Police transported Mr Miller to Spanish Point where he was taken by ambulance to hospital. But he was pronounced dead on arrival at the KEMH.
Mr Miller was a passenger on the Norwegian Crown cruise ship and it is understood he had been holidaying in Bermuda with his wife.
Mr Maddocks, who runs Triangle Diving at Grotto Bay, said: "We were out at North Rock. He and his buddy went off and did their dive, had their 35-minutes bottom time.
"He came up a short distance from the boat and his buddy was signaling for help.
"I dived in and swam him back to the boat. I believe he died at the back of the boat.
"I got him on board and started CPR. Then everyone else started to come back from their dives, so we got them all on board and called the marine police.
"We had a couple of paramedics and a doctor diving with us and they tried to resuscitate him but there was nothing we could have done.
"I have never seen that before, I have never had anyone die in my arms like that before."
He said Mr Miller was a friendly guy and an experienced diver, qualified to assistant-instructor level.
He had dived with Triangle the day before on a night-dive at the Dredger wreck.
"I didn't know him well obviously but we'd chatted and he seemed like a nice guy. We'd like to send our condolences to Mrs. Miller and to his dive buddy."
Mr Maddocks added that he was proud of his team for the way they had responded in the emergency.
"For the whole team it was a pretty traumatic day. We pride ourselves on doing a good job and it's a blow when something like this happens.
"We're all trained in CPR, we responded quickly, we did everything right, we got nothing but praise from the emergency service, there was just nothing we could do. It was just his time. It could have happened walking down the street and it would have been the same."
Police released a brief statement yesterday confirming the death and indicating that an autopsy would be carried out.
Skipper: 'Diver died in my arms'
A boat captain has told how an American tourist died in his arms after suffering a heart-attack in the water during a scuba diving trip to North Rock.
Graham Maddocks dived from his boat and tried to rescue stricken diver James Miller when his buddy signalled for help after surfacing, following a 35-minute dive on Wednesday.
He swam the diver back to the boat and performed CPR on the deck, aided by two paramedics and a doctor who were also diving with the group, until the police boat arrived on the scene.
But they were unable to resuscitate the 52-year-old. Police transported Mr Miller to Spanish Point where he was taken by ambulance to hospital. But he was pronounced dead on arrival at the KEMH.
Mr Miller was a passenger on the Norwegian Crown cruise ship and it is understood he had been holidaying in Bermuda with his wife.
Mr Maddocks, who runs Triangle Diving at Grotto Bay, said: "We were out at North Rock. He and his buddy went off and did their dive, had their 35-minutes bottom time.
"He came up a short distance from the boat and his buddy was signaling for help.
"I dived in and swam him back to the boat. I believe he died at the back of the boat.
"I got him on board and started CPR. Then everyone else started to come back from their dives, so we got them all on board and called the marine police.
"We had a couple of paramedics and a doctor diving with us and they tried to resuscitate him but there was nothing we could have done.
"I have never seen that before, I have never had anyone die in my arms like that before."
He said Mr Miller was a friendly guy and an experienced diver, qualified to assistant-instructor level.
He had dived with Triangle the day before on a night-dive at the Dredger wreck.
"I didn't know him well obviously but we'd chatted and he seemed like a nice guy. We'd like to send our condolences to Mrs. Miller and to his dive buddy."
Mr Maddocks added that he was proud of his team for the way they had responded in the emergency.
"For the whole team it was a pretty traumatic day. We pride ourselves on doing a good job and it's a blow when something like this happens.
"We're all trained in CPR, we responded quickly, we did everything right, we got nothing but praise from the emergency service, there was just nothing we could do. It was just his time. It could have happened walking down the street and it would have been the same."
Police released a brief statement yesterday confirming the death and indicating that an autopsy would be carried out.
