Diver Death in Cayman

[baz500]

Go back and read my post. I said he could have been saved if we had know ahead of time he went that deep but it would have taken 4 tanks and someone experienced to go down and get him and bring him up slowly with a lot of safety stops. In our case it was impossible because we didn't know he went that deep.

IF we had 4 tanks, IF we knew where he was, IF we had someone to go get him...


A lot of if's but maybe if he hadn't gone to a depth he wasn't qualified to...



If someone had gone to 346ft to bring him up as slowly as he had to then we would probably be discussing 2 fatalities.

 

[fosterboxermom]

Sorry, the autosy can't tell his narcosis, it would however show physical eveidence of overexpansion injury, which I would expect.

I would have NEVER followed a diver that deep to try and stop him/her, it would be killing myself.

It isn't reasonable to expect to have 4 extra tanks on the dive.

What is reasonable would be to have better site picked, more defined buddy teams and awareness.

No I know you couldn't follow someone that deep. I was saying in different circumstances if someone went that deep it isn't impossible to get them back up if you have the the experience and the extra tanks to save him this is what I was told by the Cayman Forensic Pathologist who is a diver.

 

[fosterboxermom]

I'm sorry you are wrong. You can't dive air to that depth and expect anything but a bad outcome. Even if I watched him start to swim down the wall, I would chase to maybe 180-190 and stop. there is nothing more anybody could do without dying themselves.

No one saw him go down that is what is sad!! Of course someone would have gone after him I would have in a heart beat but I was at 60ft and with his fiancee' and just keeping an eye on the group below me to follow everyone so we didn't get lost.

 

[InTheDrink]

I know this is an off chance, but 346 ft is fairly close to 100m. Was his guage in metres or feet? Is it conceivable that he mistakenly dived to this depth believing it to be 100ft rather than 100m?

 

[oly5050user]

The DM was his buddy in this case. The DM took everyone as a group (5) not including himself. That is how HE planned the dive. Yes he wanted to go deeper and had been practicing skills, ego, all men have ego's so if you want to say that then so be it. BUT NO ONE HAS COMMENTED ON THAT THE DM KNEW THE DIVER WAS MISSING AND DIDN'T ABORT THE DIVE. THAT SEEMS TO BE OK WITH ALL THE DM'S ON THIS BOARD!! AND DEFENDING THE DM'S.

You can say what you want but you weren't there and you didn't see this guy nor did you see that he knew Brendan was missing half way into the dive and still continued the dive and then on the safety line he was signaling to his finance' as to where Brendan was. He F'd up and no one can convice me otherwise. Yes Brendan went too deep. But the Dm should have kept his eyes on HIS group. I have been on group dives before (which is not uncommon in the Caribbean not to have a buddy only the DM) and A GOOD DM ALWAYS hovers to the side watches his divers and makes sure they are all there and then he proceeds after them. This did not happen in this case.

Even in the islands when a DM leads a dive ,each diver has a buddy assigned..Seems the Dm believed that you -fiancee-Brendan where a 3 person buddy team,which is not uncommon..We are not necessarily defending the DM,but he was there to merely lead a dive and point things out for those that cared.The Dm did not know victim was missing until he asked you where Brendan was.At that time it was already too late to do anything being that you state the computer on the victim read over 300'...

 

[fosterboxermom]

I know this is an off chance, but 346 ft is fairly close to 100m. Was his guage in metres or feet? Is it conceivable that he mistakenly dived to this depth believing it to be 100ft rather than 100m?

It was in feet and it was pegged to the max. We went off what was on his computer. And no I don't believe he went that far. He knew depths. I believe he got NC and then didn't realize that he was going up or down for a while and inflated his BC and then he shot to the surface in 2 minutes.

 

[teddyg04]

Cayman Island has a high number of diving deaths and has been one of the hot spots to dive. But does anyone know that the dive shops operate against Port Authority and Cayman Laws stating that there should be two people on all dive boats? They say that it would make Dive Shops "Unprofitable"!! So they would rather compromise the safety of divers than loose money.

My friend died last week due to a DM's error. I will do whatever I have to to let everyone know that Cayman is unsafe to dive!!

I am so sorry about the loss of your friend. No one can know what you are going through, and to have a tragedy impact a sport that you obviously love is devastating. It sounds as is there was some very poor judgement on the part of the DM on this dive, and possibly overconfidence on the part of the diver. I'm not assigning blame to anyone, not having all the facts.

My point is that, while it is possible that this particular operation may not have followed what most of us consider safe standards, this doesn't apply to all dive operators on Grand Cayman. If it comes out that DD bears some of the responsibility for your friend's death, then their business will suffer - either legally or through loss of business due to word of mouth. And deservedly. But please don't tar all operators with the same brush. Unless it can be shown that they are all greedy and irresponsible, they deserve to be judged by their individual records, not by the actions (or lack therof) of one operator.

Again, my deep sympathy for your loss. As many of us know, being involved in a diver death is a terrible experience, and when it is someone you're close to, it's even harder to bear.

 

[fosterboxermom]

even in the islands when a dm leads a dive ,each diver has a buddy assigned..seems the dm believed that you -fiancee-brendan where a 3 person buddy team,which is not uncommon..we are not necessarily defending the dm,but he was there to merely lead a dive and point things out for those that cared.the dm did not know victim was missing until he asked you where brendan was.at that time it was already too late to do anything being that you state the computer on the victim read over 300'...

yes he knew the victim was missing but you don't contiune a dive!!!! You abort, abort what part of that don't you understand!!!!! You don't continue. What if it had been your wife or someone missing and they were on the surface and coudld have been saved and we continued for 10 more minutes and a 3 minute safety stop. That was 13 minutes of life saving time!!!! You don't continue, you stop. End of dive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Splash-X]

It was in feet and it was pegged to the max. We went off what was on his computer. And no I don't believe he went that far. He knew depths. I believe he got NC and then didn't realize that he was going up or down for a while and inflated his BC and then he shot to the surface in 2 minutes.

I'm having a hard time following that. Being a new diver at 100ft, after 10 minutes how much air do you think he had left? Lets say for reasoning he had 1/2 a a 80cuft cylinder.

3000psi => used 1500 PSI while diving 10 mins @ 100ft. At 100ft he would be using 150 pounds per minute with a SAC of 37.21 pounds per minute.

At 346ft, using 427 pounds per minute. With 1500lbs in his tank he would have had roughly 3 mins 30 seconds of air left at that depth.

I think that having used only 1500psi at 100 ft for 10 minutes for a new divers is unrealistic but if that were the case I beleive the cause of death would be asphyxiation.

 

[fosterboxermom]

I am so sorry about the loss of your friend. No one can know what you are going through, and to have a tragedy impact a sport that you obviously love is devastating. It sounds as is there was some very poor judgement on the part of the DM on this dive, and possibly overconfidence on the part of the diver. I'm not assigning blame to anyone, not having all the facts.

My point is that, while it is possible that this particular operation may not have followed what most of us consider safe standards, this doesn't apply to all dive operators on Grand Cayman. If it comes out that DD bears some of the responsibility for your friend's death, then their business will suffer - either legally or through loss of business due to word of mouth. And deservedly. But please don't tar all operators with the same brush. Unless it can be shown that they are all greedy and irresponsible, they deserve to be judged by their individual records, not by the actions (or lack therof) of one operator.

Again, my deep sympathy for your loss. As many of us know, being involved in a diver death is a terrible experience, and when it is someone you're close to, it's even harder to bear.

Thank you. I appreciate your comments. And diving is a passion I am not giving up. And absolutely I am not bashing ANY dive op except DD. However, I am not sure if any of the other shops in cayman are doing the same thing all I know is that there is a statement from the owner of Ocean Frontiers stating they are NOT going to follow Cayman law because it (well let me look up the quote so I can get it accurate)

Cayman Islands - Cay Compass News Online - CITA queries look–out policy

Here is that acutual article explaining why he doesn't feel two people don't need to be on a dive boat.