Diving accident in Michigan claims Oak Harbor attorney

[DandyDon]

Diving accident in Michigan claims Oak Harbor attorney - Whidbey News Times

A longtime Oak Harbor attorney was killed in a diving accident in northern Lake Michigan Monday.

Mark Theune, 58, was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. eastern time by a medical examiner in Marquette County. As of Tuesday morning, a cause of death had not yet been determined.

An attorney at the law firm Cohen, Manni, Theune, & Manni for more than 25 years, Theune was the town of Coupeville’s current prosecuting attorney, an active member of his church and an avid diver.

Firm partner Jacob Cohen described Theune as being both an exceptional human being and attorney. Cohen said Theune was kind man who loved his community and the loss will be hard to bear.

“He was loved and respected by everyone in this office,” Cohen said. “He will be deeply missed.”

According to Lt. j.g. Adam Saurin, a spokesman for U.S. Coast Guard Sector Sault Sainte Marie, Theune was diving with Shipwreck Explorers, a charter company out of Manistique in Schoolcraft County when the accident occurred.

The Coast Guard received a mayday call at about noon and a helicopter was dispatched to the vessel’s location, which Saurin said was about five nautical miles northwest of Boulder Reef Rock.

“They stated ‘we have an unconscious diver,’” Saurin said.

Theune, who was an experienced diver, was reportedly diving within a group of nine in waters between 300 and 350 feet in depth, Saurin said. Although it’s not clear what happened, Theune ran into trouble and was brought to the surface.

The dispatched helicopter was about an hour away, and according to Saurin, someone on the vessel performed CPR on Theune for about 45 minutes. A commercial vessel that was nearby also assisted by lending a defibrillator.

Upon the helicopter’s arrival, Theune was hoisted aboard and flown to Marquette General Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The hospital, which is located off Lake Superior, was selected because it contains a hyperbaric chamber that can treat decompression sickness, commonly referred to as “the bends.”

Cohen said he spoke with Theune’s dive partner and that it’s not yet clear what happened. Any number of things could have gone wrong, from Theune suffering a heart attack to some other unknown problem.

He confirmed that Theune was a diver with more than 35 years of experience. He’s gone diving in locations around the world, from the lakes and quarries of Wisconsin where he grew up to Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

Theune was a known underwater photographer and a member of the Maritime Documentation Society’s board. The Puget Sound-based group is dedicated to exploring and documenting existing, undiscovered, and natural historic shipwrecks, according to its website.

Theune was also an accomplished attorney, successfully arguing at least two cases before the Washington State Supreme Court. He gained some fame in 2008 by serving as legal counsel for the Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation during the custody wars for Smiley the dog.

Theune was also a servant in his community, volunteering at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Oak Harbor. He was a member of the church council and was a sacristan — a person in charge of a sacristy and its contents for Mass.

“I can’t tell you what a loss it is,” Cohen said. “It just breaks my heart.”

Theune is survived by his wife, Nancy Theune, an employee with North Whidbey Fire and Rescue. According to Cohen, she has requested that any donations be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry.

Donations can be mailed to 400 Washington Ave, Montgomery Ala., 36104 or submitted online at Southern Poverty Law Center.

 

[USVet96]

Just FULL of terrible news today huh Don

Again, condolences go out to family and friends involved with this incident.

Another tragic loss of life.

Dive Safe

 

[DandyDon]

Just FULL of terrible news today huh Don

Again, condolences go out to family and friends involved with this incident.

Another tragic loss of life.

Dive Safe

I thought it was nice to not have any to post for a few days. All 8 special rules for this A&I forum are important and it's good to review them whether new to posting here or not as we can forget. See http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/52701-special-rules-please-read.html

Some may wonder about these two in particular, like why not...?

(4) No...blamestorming. Mishap analysis does not lay blame, it finds causes.
(5) No "condolences to the family" here. Please use our Passings Forum for these kinds of messages.

Simply because these two can undermine the possible examination of cause, effect, and how to prevent similar accidents in our own dives. Of course we hate to read about a diver dying, but condolences should be posted in the Passings forum only; maybe do so and link that here? And if there is any blame to be assigned, wouldn't it be best to do so in a preventative manner by offering a post on how things should be done in Basic Scuba rather than trying to convict some entity here?

 

[USVet96]

Don - Are you seriously lecturing me and reprimanding me because I offered condolences to the family who just suffered a loss of life?

Then I consider myself reprimanded; but I am sorry. I will NOT edit my post and withdraw my offered condolences.

It won't happen again.

This is like suing a civilian that tries to assist at an accident scene. Doesn't really send a good message.

 

[USVet96]

And Don I'm not trying to give you a hard time. You are right about the forum and I am wrong.

Its just rough hearing about all these incidents lately and it really makes you think.

Sorry I got upset

 

[Hatul]

It's amazing how deep they were diving. That's even deeper than the Andria Doria. It would be interesting to get more details of what happened.

Adam

 

[devildoc5]

Seems the trend recently seems to be (reportedly at least) VERY experienced divers doing DEEP technical dives and having some sort of medical problem while on the bottom.

This should hopefully serve as a reminder to get checked out by a doctor regularly (at LEAST every year).

Also this should hopefully remind everyone about the importance of not only taking CPR/First Aid but also ALL of the DAN courses and a stress and rescue class. AND doing bi-annual updates.

Not everything can be prevented, as most of us are well aware, however an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (or whatever that stupid saying is...)

 

[Pliny]

And stay close to your buddy. If you have a MI, survival curves say you need cpr or an aed within 10 minutes or your chances are in the single digits.

Looking at these numbers makes me think the unresponsive diver protocols overly emphasize controlling ascent rate to limit AGE and DCS.

Unfortunately if youre deep and you have MI youre not going to get to the surface and on the boat in time for CPR or use of an AED (has anyone ever seen an AED on a dive boat?).

 

[devildoc5]

And stay close to your buddy. If you have a MI, survival curves say you need cpr or an aed within 10 minutes or your chances are in the single digits.

Looking at these numbers makes me think the unresponsive diver protocols overly emphasize controlling ascent rate to limit AGE and DCS.

Unfortunately if youre deep and you have MI youre not going to get to the surface and on the boat in time for CPR or use of an AED (has anyone ever seen an AED on a dive boat?).

I have a buddy (whom I dive with regularly) that is a DES and Rescue diver who packs an AED and a DAN O2 kit in his gear bag on every dive.

Unfortunately this is not common due to the price of those pieces of equipment...

 

[ianr33]

Guess he was on a rebreather?