Diver Dies in San Carlos, Mexico

[Laurie S.]

My dive instructor called me today from San Carlos and told me that a close friend of his died this week while diving. He was in his mid-twenties and a fisherman and was diving for scallops at about 80 feet. He and his brother had been doing multiple dives for a few days. His brother told him to stop for the day because that they had gone past their limits, but he was an aggressiver diver and didn't listen. He did another dive to the same depth (don't know bottom time) and did a 30-minute deco stop. When he surfaced, he suffered embolisms in both lungs and died. He leaves three children, one on the way, and a wife. I had met him once, and he was a very nice, hard-working young man. I wish he would have listened to his brother.

 

[ROMO DIVER]

Very sad to hear this. I have a 2 month old and two others under the age of six. I could not imagine the toll this is going to take on his wife. However, emobolism has nothing to do with bottom time or repetitive dives. This is a straight violation of rule number one: NEVER hold your breath under water. It can happen to the best of us and it breaks my heart in this case. Sorry to hear about their loss.

 

[Laurie S.]

Yes, I agree, I wasn't sure of the description of it being an embolism. I'll know more when I go back down next month.

 

[RickyF]

Really sad to hear. My prayers to the family!!

 

[Hatul]

Think of all the people he could have created.

 

[Jax]

This doesn't happen often. Does anyone have any further info?

Laurie - was he American? Or a local?

 

[Laurie S.]

He was a local fisherman, 25 years old, living in La Manga, which is the small fishing village next to San Carlos. He was diving for a type of scallop that isn't very common at San Carlos. His brother said to come back the next day, but Chino was too hard-headed and paid the ultimate price. My instructor said that something like this was going to happen to him because he was too aggressive in his diving.

 

[Jax]

So sad. Thanks for elaborating.

 

[fdog]

The description could have been the chokes - which would present very similarly to a breath-hold overexpansion injury - but after doing 30 minutes of deco, this would be hard to imagine as sequela. A peek at the profiles would yield quite a bit of insight.

<speculation> It's possible the diver was experiencing DCS at their "safety stop" (if not doing staged deco) and stretched it as long as possible, which could lead to more extensive DCS on surfacing as they went through the large pressure ratio change.


All the best, James

 

[fisheater]

"The chokes"?


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