Fatality off Bald Head Island - NC

[ahava]

Sure there is a lot of unknowns, but the big problem with any sort of CNS tox is that the body metabolizes it.

Everything I have read about OxTox says convulsions, not someone purging a reg into their mouth. He was concentrating on getting air into his lungs all the way to the end. And how does a doctor decide it is AGE over IPE?

I'm not pushing Oxtox either. Anything is possibly but until I see an overwhelming amount of evidence for any of these the book is still open. If you can put yourselves in our shoes you would see that we would love to have a 100% no doubt 100% conclusive answer which we will never probably get. But so far there is no overwhelming evidence that any of these are the cause.

 

[Thalassamania]

A careful autopsy (which sometimes requires opening the skull underwater) should show the air bubbles that block the circulation. I seem to remember an article by Tom Noguchi from the 1980s describing the procedure.

 

[aHeavyD]

1.4 for how long? If they got a fill from a station that hadn't cleaned their filters, there is a possibility of CO2 contamination in the gas mix.....that CO2 could change your equation drastically. If aHeavyD and his partner got fills at the same location, aHeavyD's tanks should have been analyzed for CO2/CO and the usual suspects...He, N, and O.

the dive time has been stated and the the depth was 1.29 ppo2

As for the fill station that did the air. It was my fill station. I'm quite anal about my system and how clean it is. The complete system is O2 clean inside except the compressor as I didn't take it apart. Systems under 40% do not have to be O2 clean. But I O2 cleaned it anyway. Every Cascade bottle was O2 clean also. I have a CO monitor on it, Filter monitor and keep track of every time it's started and for how long with the temp and time being recorded. The filters are changed when due. My air test passes an E grade test and also the oxygen compatibility test every quarter. Don, Steve, Al and I are all certified gas blenders. We all even keep our dive tanks O2 clean. The four of us at quite responsible to making sure our gear is always up to spec.
We have used the air before the trip for the past two years. Ten of us are filled from the same compressor during the trip and nobody else had a problem. After the trip I personally reanalyzed Don's other tanks. I also included the finds in my report to the USCG. We brought enough tanks for two days of diving before needing a refill. We have since dove the remaining tanks of air and nobody has had any problems. I would be more than glad to let the USCG sample my air if they like.
I’m not going to post pictures of my station but they are on this site in the compressor forum. Check my profile if you want to look for them.

Please let's move on from this as I'm not going to get into talking about my fill station from this post on.

Bottom line there was no CO in his tanks.

 

[fpsndiver]

I knew your run time was about 70 minutes or so, I read that somewhere. Similar to my run times, depending on deco gas and bottom mix, that is usually 45-55 minutes on the bottom. I'm not going to post deco schedules, as I don't want people trying to mimic my schedules that I post here...there would probably be liability there. It could be IPE, I am doing some reading. This particular incident is definitely concerning to me, and I don't assert that diver error was the culprit....thus my interest.

 

[aHeavyD]

I knew your run time was about 70 minutes or so, I read that somewhere. Similar to my run times, depending on deco gas and bottom mix, that is usually 45-55 minutes on the bottom. I'm not going to post deco schedules, as I don't want people trying to mimic my schedules that I post here...there would probably be liability there. It could be IPE, I am doing some reading. This particular incident is definitely concerning to me, and I don't assert that diver error was the culprit....thus my interest.

The other guys diving double 100's had run times close to as you just stated. Don and I were diving bigger doubles and both had 72's of O2. That would have been way more than enough O2 to handle any emergency or failure under water.

 

[Jax]

Yahoo's Diving Accidents Group has a comment by a Doctor -

I wonder if Don may have suffered immersion pulmonary oedema which will show nothing necessarily at autopsy. The grunting noise at depth followed by severe respiratory distress and the need to purge his reg to try and get enough gas all fit with that. I think it most likely that the findings of CAGE/barorauma were due to the emergency ascent in his state of depressed consciousness.

I sure wish we had more information on this affliction, because it seems more and more recognized.

 

[tddfleming]

Yahoo's Diving Accidents Group has a comment by a Doctor -



I sure wish we had more information on this affliction, because it seems more and more recognized.

The current Dan's Alert Diver has a nice article on IPE. While it does not answer any questions or really shed light on the condition, but it does give a few likely causes. To include high blood pressure. There is also a current research project going on for this.

 

[Seastarson]

Very sad, indeed. What struck me was his dive profile, which seems exceedingly risky, especially for an 'over 50' diver. 100+ feet and 70 minutes? Just a thought. Recent stats seem to indicate a spike in the cause of diving fatalities lately, as not one of embolism, but actually, cardiac related.

Personally, I've seen a much higher number of 50+ divers on our boats daily. This is great, but with so many babyboomer divers now over 50, and the national levels of physical fitness at an all time low, I belive extra diligence should be given to contributing factors increasing one's risk. I hate to say it, but as a 50+ diver myself, I have backed off pushing limits, gotten more conservative with ascent rates, and regardless of what my computer says, practice safety stops on every dive. I used to love diving deeper, but since diving nearly daily, and regretfully not in as great condition as I used to be, I dive much more conservatively, both for my own sake, as well as those in my charge while diving with us.

The only time I want to spend in a chamber, is for HBOT therapy, which works amazingly well. Peace & condolences to his friends and family and most especially, his dive pal, aHeavyD.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Medical problems happen both above and below the water. Above the water line, they can be a bit more forgiving, but not always. What I gather reading through this is that if I had to pick a buddy to dive with, it would be someone like aHeavyD. He was with his buddy. They were both diving within trained depths and gas restrictions. When his buddy had a problem, he noticed and responded. His buddy did not have to ask for help and flail about. They were close enough to notice. With a buddy like that, he had the best chance of surviving what appears to be a medical incident. His buddy was able to get the attention of another diver so that there would not be two medical emergencies on board.

It appears through all of this he remained somewhat composed and in control of the dive. And even though I am certain his heart was in full panic for his friend, he kept his mind and body out of full panic--that is no easy task. I have to offer some respect to a diver who can do that.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Very sad, indeed. What struck me was his dive profile, which seems exceedingly risky, especially for an 'over 50' diver. 100+ feet and 70 minutes? Just a thought. Recent stats seem to indicate a spike in the cause of diving fatalities lately, as not one of embolism, but actually, cardiac related.

Personally, I've seen a much higher number of 50+ divers on our boats daily. This is great, but with so many babyboomer divers now over 50, and the national levels of physical fitness at an all time low, I belive extra diligence should be given to contributing factors increasing one's risk. I hate to say it, but as a 50+ diver myself, I have backed off pushing limits, gotten more conservative with ascent rates, and regardless of what my computer says, practice safety stops on every dive. I used to love diving deeper, but since diving nearly daily, and regretfully not in as great condition as I used to be, I dive much more conservatively, both for my own sake, as well as those in my charge while diving with us.

The only time I want to spend in a chamber, is for HBOT therapy, which works amazingly well. Peace & condolences to his friends and family and most especially, his dive pal, aHeavyD.

You do understand that 70 minutes was the full run time of the dive? I sometimes do some support for guys in their 50's and above who do run times of a couple of hours or more to over 300'. Their actual bottom time is only a few minutes. Their travel time from the surface to the bottom is like 5 minutes and the rest of the long time is spent slowly inching toward the surface.

If a diver is healthy, trained and diving the right mix, he should be able to safely go to any depth for which he is trained and has an appropriate mix and supply to dive
if you are a fat out of shape baby boomer or whatever and you try to run a marathon on a hot day--it isn't going to go well for you. if you are a fat out of shape baby boomer or whatever and you try to dive over your trained limits in heavy seas with a strong current--it isn't going to go well for you. It this specific incident it appears the diver was both trained and experienced for this type of dive, he had an appropriate mix to breathe, he kept to his dive plan, he had a buddy, his buddy was responsive, the sea conditions were fairly tame and so forth.