That is certainly a possibility and a feasible consideration. However, it was mentioned in some article I read, the initial issue was a mask issue with the cousin. It is also possible that the DI surfaced with the cousin to fix the mask issue while the victim stayed at depth alone. She could have had any sort of issue, including the possibility of CO intoxication, or any other possibility such as narcosis, which caused her to become disoriented or even descended, remove her reg, or other complications.
If two divers surface from a shallower depth and are in difficulty citing bad air, it is only logical to assume that a diver going deeper on air from the same supply would be in even worse shape. You don't need narcosis or some other explanation to figure out why she would be in worse shape than the other two divers. Yes, she should not have descended alone, but if all three had descended to the same depth together, they would all likely be dead
IF they were breathing CO contaminated air.
Who is berating the person who posted the article? I went back and tried to find the source of naming Sunshine. In all I can find the only reason the Sunshine even came up is because the there was some sort of text message with their name in it. However it doesn't mention if the text was sent prior or after or any detail.
Mike, it really isn't as hard as you are making it out to be. In post #4 of this thread, right there on page 1 of 20, is a linked news story in which the deceased's husband named Sunshine as the shop that filled the tanks. That is the reason their name came up in this thread, not random texts, not wild guessing, not vindictive competitors. It came up because it was reported as such in one of the very first news stories linked on the thread, and it is still being discussed because nobody has given any conclusive evidence that they didn't actually fill the tanks. We have somebody posting here who is obviously related to the shop in question, and we have you, with apparently every one of your scuba board posts on this topic defending them. Both of you are vehement that Sunshine didn't fill the tanks, but neither of you are offering any evidence other than your assurance or your assumptions. In the end, it really doesn't matter to the discussion of this incident whether Sunshine filled the tanks or not, and by continuing to belabor the issue, you are only succeeding in keeping their name associated with the incident, even if they were not.
With a few notable exceptions, nobody on this board really cares in the end whether it was Sunshine or not. What we care about is learning something from a dive incident in which an experienced diver died and at least one other diver reportedly became ill. I understand and agree with your urge that people not rush to judge Sunshine...there is no proof they did anything wrong, just as there is no proof that they did not fill the tanks. The rumored shop closure and PADI suspensions may or may not have anything to do with this incident.
What I have learned from this thread so far (despite all the bickering back and forth between supporters of Sunshine and those they feel are rushing to judgment), is that I need to be more careful about not leaving my buddy too far away, especially at the beginning of the dive, because that is when I might begin to suffer from any number of issues, including but not limited to CO poisoning. I also got a good reminder that I ought to be testing every tank for CO. I got a good reminder that just because 1000s of other tanks have been filled without incident, an electric compressor can put CO in a tank without taking it in through intake contamination. I also learned that there are CO testers available for rent in case I don't dive often enough to justify buying my own.
For those reasons, I really disagree with your wish for this forum to be closed. I think you have come in here as somebody who never participated in this forum before, found a shop you happen to like potentially involved in an incident being discussed, and jumped to the conclusion that it is a bad idea to have a forum to discuss these incidents. I think if you would take a step back from your mission to defend the honor of Sunshine and evaluate what is being said here without taking it all as attacks against them, you would find there is alot that can be learned here, even if we never eventually get any real factual evidence to support or rule out various possible causes of the incident being discussed. We probably never will learn what really happened in this incident, but by discussing what might have happened, hopefully we can help other divers avoid such situations in the future.
