Diver Dies in Lake Huron on the Dunderberg

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and maybe a second BSAC incident, although it doesnt mention again if the victim was breathing or just unresponsive

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August 1996 (96/142)

At the end of a wreck dive at 51 m, whilst swimming back to the shot line for the ascent, one of a pair of divers entangled his legs in line which had unreeled from an SMB reel that he was carrying. Unable to easily untangle himself, and aware of the depth and time, he pulled himself to the shot line and, greatly out of breath, ascended the shot line to get to shallower water. Part way up, he met a third diver (part of their own dive group) who cut him free.

Whilst this was happening, his buddy recalls having problems with venting his dry suit and reaching for the neck seal. He then lapsed into unconsciousness and started to ascend through the buoyancy of his suit. He was seen by the divers on the shot line with his regulator out of his mouth.

The buddy, now cut free, made unsuccessful attempts to fit the unconscious diver's octopus regulator into his mouth, and then used the unconscious diver's stab jacket to make him more buoyant. The third diver ascended rapidly with casualty.

At the surface, the casualty was still unconscious. He was recovered into the boat and, within 5 mins., he appeared fully recovered.

The 'tangled' diver followed to the surface missing 2 mins. of stops. The boat returned to harbour and the casualty was airlifted to a recompression chamber. A full recovery was made. No ill effects were experienced by the other divers. (Coastguard report 110920)
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Thanks everyone!
Carolyn:shark2:
SB MOD
 
:popcorn:
 
I cannot disagree more. Far better to get DCS and go to the chamber than to have someone drown.

Even if I thought there was no hope for my buddy, I am going to do everything I can to ascend them as fast as I can without serious injury to myself and fix the DCS later.

Especially for a shallowish dive like 140. If you start getting to 200+ then you have to modify your decisions a bit.

I cannot agree with your statement, and I dont know who is teaching tech diving in this manner.
I can appreciate your commitment to your dive buddy, but I truely believe it would have done nothing but put the person diving with him in danger. He was the best diver that I knew, or had the honor of diving with. There has been nothing shown with the equipment or toxicology to show any negligence on anything. He knew the risks of diving, and probably would not have wanted to go any other way. Today, (9/03/63) would have been his birthday, which we usually spent going on a dive. If anyone can learn from this accident, or just re-check your gear one more time because of it, at least some good can come of it. If anyone has any questions regarding the incident, let me know. I will answer what I can, though we don't really know what really happened. Be careful, and I wish everyone safe diving.
 
No, he did not do "stupid dives". Every dive was logged and planned. He thouroghly checked his gear, and was a good diver.
 
Hi Art, as you know, I dived with Dan on many, many tech dives. On our many trips, we talked extensively about the "what if's"... I'm 1000% confident he did everything by the book... We believed that your buddy is not there to save you, but is there to assist you to save yourself. We also made it very clear that we were not to endanger each other, or expect anybody to endanger themselves in the event something was to go wrong... He would not want anybody to risk their lives in taking a "hit", because something went wrong... I feel confident he is resting in peace knowing there were no other casulties or injuries that day... I still get tears in my eyes when I think of the great friend I lost, but he died doing something he truly loved... He reminded me, numerous times, that he did this sport because it was fun... He was a fantastic diver, who loved the sport, and was my great friend. I was with him on tech dives when we had to use our contigency plans, and he was always as cool as a cucumber. I have finally wrapped my mind around the fact that it was his turn to go, and there was nothing any of us could have done to change that... I have finally returned to tech diving, but "holy smokers" is it different without him...
 
Its all part of the risk assessment we make as divers, If your happy to dive an overhead environment, dive deep on what ever gas of choice its you and your buddies decision.
How many of us practice rescue skills after our qualification courses?
I actually got very pissed off with my club because at every qualification level I did it included a rescue scenario. I seemed to spend nearly every weekend doing a lift from 20m and towing someone to shore doing rescue breaths. I am now a wee bit older and appreciate what they were trying to do. But at the time it seemed a wee bit excessive. All the dive profiles I dive now, it would not be a problem to just swim a casualty to the surface, venting his drysuit and BCD as appropriate. The thought of having to sort all that out with a deco obligation is frightening to me. I hope I never have to do it in anger!!!
 
Then why are you responding about something you dont have any knowledge of ?

The post seemed pretty thoughtful to me. Does one have to be an "expert" to post here?
 

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