Diver Dies in the Galapagos on Peter Hughes boat

[openmindOW]

Donna was just 40 and very fit and healthy, often in the gym or cycling and actively training for her next marathon. She was a qualified dive master with experience of all conditions, over 300 dives, and had spent a year in Indonesia instructing. She was cautious and professional. I believe she was PADI trained but not absolutely sure about that.

Nick, thank you for your contribitions to this Board. You are helping others to learn to avoid dive accidents. Thank you.

Donna sounds like an expereienced diver.

Donna also exercised and was in good shape. Did she have any underlying medical conditions that you are aware of? I ask, because this information might be helpful in ascertaining what happened.

Did Donna have a buddy on this dive?

 

[steveleila]

We too are friends of Donna and are finding it hard that such a great friend and excellent diver is no longer here. We met Donna in Gili Trawangan in indonesia when she was doing her dive master, her IDC training and worked with her whilst she was also doing her technical courses. She is both PADI and TDI trained and would have done more like 600+ dives all over the world in various conditions, including very challenging dive locations (Komodo).

Having know Donna and dived with her on numerous occassions we know that she would not have taken any unescessary risks.

What is missing are the real basic facts:

Dive Site, Conditions. Topography, Depth, Visibility, Buddy??? Computer??? Condition of her equipment, Report/s from Dive operator, etc.

It would not be right or respectful to guess or speculate on the last few hours of Donnas life and that is why these facts are so very important to us.

 

[lemon]

Any word on her equipment? Is the Peter Hughes organization being helpful with the process?

It sounds like she was an incredibly accomplished diver.

 

[graywhale]

I would like to know what type of regulator she was using and if she possibly had some sort of medical issue that could have been part of the cause. I can not believe someone with her training and experience would suffer a fatal incident unless equipment or a medical condition was a contributing factor. Faulty regulators have been know to cause Salt Water Aspiration Syndrome, especially Poseidons.

Salt Water Aspiration Syndrome | LIVESTRONG.COM
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/di...e-symptoms-after-dive-poseidon-regulator.html

Then again, some people leave us prematurely for unknown reasons.............to us. My condolences to her family and friends. She seemed like a real trooper and well liked.

 

[rcohn]

What is missing are the real basic facts:

Dive Site, Conditions. Topography, Depth, Visibility, etc.

I am very sorry to hear about your loss.

Since no one else has answered, I can give you general information about diving at Darwin’s Arch. I just returned from my second trip there in August and have 22 dives at the arch. There is really one basic dive site, the pangas drop the divers in front of the arch and the divers swim down fighting the current (minimal to 3 knots) to hold onto the rock ledges below. The divers hang onto the rocks watching the scalloped hammerheads and waiting for a whale shark. My first trip the hammerheads were coming in close so we waited at 60 ft. This last trip most divers were dropping down to 80 or 100 ft (or deeper) to get closer to the sharks. Visibility was usually in the 40 to 90 ft range.

If a whale shark shows up, everyone takes off after it, swimming as hard as you can to catch up with the shark. Then you keep swimming as long as you can and stop when you’ve had enough. I have never swum as hard on scuba as we did chasing a shark. It is very very easy for buddies to become separated when chasing a whale shark. The water can be deep off the arch; I hit 119 ft on one swim and was not close to the bottom. As divers give up chasing the shark they are often scattered across the area. If you’re close to the rocks you can swim back, or stay in the blue hoping to see another whale shark. Sometimes the shark or current may take you into the channel between the arch and the island where the depth is shallower, sand around 40 ft deep.

If the currents are favorable, and no whale sharks are seen from the rocks, divers may swim out into the blue, generally this is done in a group. With serious photographers, buddy diving may not be practiced and it was common on my last trip for divers to finish alone in the blue. When you’ve run out of bottom time or reach your ascent pressure, you ascend and do a safety stop, then surface and wait for the panga to pick you up. There is no down line; all safety stops are done in the blue. The surface may be somewhat rough, you are surrounded by open ocean, waves 4 ft or higher are common.

Detailed description of the diving on my trip may be found here:
http://www.uwphotochat.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8528&postcount=38

I found another good description of the site here:
http://www.starfish.ch/scubadiving/Galapagos-north.html#Arch

I hope this answers a few question and that someone who was on the trip will respond with information that is more specific.

Ralph

 

[fairybasslet]

I am very sorry to hear about your loss.

Since no one else has answered, I can give you general information about diving at Darwin’s Arch. I just returned from my second trip there in August and have 22 dives at the arch. There is really one basic dive site, the pangas drop the divers in front of the arch and the divers swim down fighting the current (minimal to 3 knots) to hold onto the rock ledges below. The divers hang onto the rocks watching the scalloped hammerheads and waiting for a whale shark. My first trip the hammerheads were coming in close so we waited at 60 ft. This last trip most divers were dropping down to 80 or 100 ft (or deeper) to get closer to the sharks. Visibility was usually in the 40 to 90 ft range.

If a whale shark shows up, everyone takes off after it, swimming as hard as you can to catch up with the shark. Then you keep swimming as long as you can and stop when you’ve had enough. I have never swum as hard on scuba as we did chasing a shark. It is very very easy for buddies to become separated when chasing a whale shark. The water can be deep off the arch; I hit 119 ft on one swim and was not close to the bottom. As divers give up chasing the shark they are often scattered across the area. If you’re close to the rocks you can swim back, or stay in the blue hoping to see another whale shark. Sometimes the shark or current may take you into the channel between the arch and the island where the depth is shallower, sand around 40 ft deep.

If the currents are favorable, and no whale sharks are seen from the rocks, divers may swim out into the blue, generally this is done in a group. With serious photographers, buddy diving may not be practiced and it was common on my last trip for divers to finish alone in the blue. When you’ve run out of bottom time or reach your ascent pressure, you ascend and do a safety stop, then surface and wait for the panga to pick you up. There is no down line; all safety stops are done in the blue. The surface may be somewhat rough, you are surrounded by open ocean, waves 4 ft or higher are common.

Detailed description of the diving on my trip may be found here:
http://www.uwphotochat.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8528&postcount=38

I found another good description of the site here:
http://www.starfish.ch/scubadiving/Galapagos-north.html#Arch

I hope this answers a few question and that someone who was on the trip will respond with information that is more specific.

Ralph

A most excellent description of the type of diving to expect. Sometimes the current was so strong while hanging on the rocks, I thought my reg was going to get ripped out of my mouth.

Since there is so much exertion involved when swimming after whale sharks, CO2 build up is possible. I remember doing one safety stop completely alone in the blue. It was kind of a scary experience. As soon as I surfaced, the panga was maybe 50 feet away and my group was about 30 feet away.

 

[jorge.a.mahauad]

Hello Everyone,

I know the divemaster guiding the group personally. He is a very experienced and reliable professional and has been working for more than 20 years guiding divers in the Galapagos. I have been with him a few times in the northern islands (Darwin and Wolf some 120 NM from the central Galapagos islands)

I post this because there is a lot of speculation in the thread now. This information came from a very reliable source. I did not wanted to add to the heat but I think it is necessary to do it now.

Donna was experiencing vomit the night before the dive. She felt fine and did a first dive from which she surfaced OK. On the sencond dive, she got separated from the group. The guide and her buddy lost contact with her during the dive.

The groups (2) surfaced and she was missing. After a few minutes she was found floating on the surface. CPR was provided by one of the divemasters but it was too late.

The autopsy revealed vomit in her lungs.

The British consulate is undergoing an investigation on the matter. The leading divemaster of the boat has sent PADI an incident report.

My condolences for Donna's loss to her family and friends.

Jorge

 

[openmindOW]

I know the divemaster guiding the group personally. He is a very experienced and reliable professional and has been working for more than 20 years guiding divers in the Galapagos. I have been with him a few times in the northern islands (Darwin and Wolf some 120 NM from the central Galapagos islands)

I post this because there is a lot of speculation in the thread now. This information came from a very reliable source. I did not wanted to add to the heat but I think it is necessary to do it now.

Thank you, Jorge, for your post.

As you may know, accidents are discussed on this Forum for the purpose of helping divers to learn about incidents in the hope that future dive accidents might be prevented.

Any accurate information can help to eliminate unwarranted speculation.

Thank you for contributing to this Forum.

 

[steveleila]

[RE: QUOTE from jorge.a.mahauad]

While we ourselves requested some information and facts on Donna's last few hours, it was not to attribute blame to anyone - it was simply to understand how such a tragic accident to happen and to avoid speculation. Thanks to all that have written on here and provided just that.

However Jorge, While we are sure that your words were not intentially hurtful, that is how they have come across and been percieved by her family and friends. Her sister is extremely upset and has asked us to reply to you. By trying to protect the integrity of your divemaster friend who I might add is still alive, you have managed to tarnish Donna's memory by making it seem like it was all her fault for being sick and continuing to dive. Please remember that Donna is not a fictional character and is someone we miss very dearly. While you may feel that you have the facts, the british coroner, foreign office and PADI reports are all that are going to count.

May we suggest that from immediate effect that no more posts to this thread are added as it is too painful for those of us who have lost a dear friend to read. However, if anyone has any information & facts regarding Donna's last dive that you report it directly to the foreign office or PADI so they can look into it as part of their investigation. Jorge - if you do indeed have such reliable sources and access to her autopsy report, we would ask that you contact us privately on email steveleila@ntlworld.com so we may pass it on to the appropriate authorities ourselves.

Dearest Donna, Rest in peace

 

[riftvalley84]

I don't think that Jorge said anything wrong in his post. He stated the facts as he had heard them. If in fact Donna was vomiting the night before, it may or may not have contributed to Donna's death. Jorge made a point of saying that she felt fine in the morning. I would think that her family would appreciate all pieces of information, whether they contributed or not. As is mentioned numerous times on this forum, this is a place where we try to learn what went wrong. If it turns out that Donna was sick the night before and should have missed a day of diving, I am sure she would want others to gain from that knowledge.