Fatality off Pensacola - Read and learn

[Tricia]

... it says that the Donor wasn't even sure if the DIVER was with his group. So in effect, the DIVER was a new, underwater "insta-buddy" and the Donor was graciously offering him assistance, as I hope we all would do in that situation.

But once they had hit the last safety stop, it was the DIVER's choice to head to the surface and the Donor made the choice (as was his right) to remain and perform a safety stop for himself. Moreover, the Donor continued to watch the DIVER on the surface and at first, he seemed OK.

Of course, the question has to be asked: where was the DIVER's buddy? Or was he diving solo?

In any event, I commend the Donor for his fantastic actions and would be pleased to dive with him any time!

Trish

 

[UaVaj]

Do we know the outcome of the ME report? AGE, cardio, Etc.?

x2

DIVER was fine up at safety stop depth, DIVER was fine at the surface.

What is cause of death?

 

[BertP]

I hesitate to add anything to this thread since my experience pales in comparison to virtually every other diver here. But, I teach computer classes for a living and I tend to look at situations - tragic or otherwise - and try to pull from them something that, if I was an instructor in that discipline, I would be able to give to my students as a real life example of what they should do when and why. In this case, it is the insidiousness of the dangers in scuba that will lull some people into a state of complacency. I'm not saying that that is what happened here, I really don't know, but it certainly could have been.

If you take something like fire, it is relatively easy to recognize when you are getting to the point that you may be doing yourself harm. Long before you get to that point, you feel the heat and pain associated with a burn. There is plenty of warning that you had better back off or you will be causing yourself permanent damage. Not so with scuba. You can easily get bent without ever experiencing a single warning symptom until you become aware of the fact that you are bent. I remember watching a show on tv once where a couple of divers go to many places in the world and dive on different wrecks, etc. The entire show is an explanation of what they are diving on and the history behind it. On one show, they dove on a wreck and about 5 or 10 minutes after they were back one the boat, one of the divers said "Damn, I think I'm bent." Sure enough, he had to be airlifted to a chamber. But, he had basically no indication before hand that anything was wrong. And, he is a professional diver.

The bottom line for me is that there are deco tables and procedures that we need to abide by. It may seem at times that they are frivolous and we don't REALLY need to follow them, but they do exist for a reason. Many people have learned the hard way that if you do not dive the way the tables, etc, say we need to, we can get seriously hurt even though there is no physiological indication that there is anything wrong until it is too late. Follow the rules and be safe.

Bert

 

[Hetland]

x2

DIVER was fine up at safety stop depth, DIVER was fine at the surface.

What is cause of death?

remember it's the shallowest 30ft that kill you in diving. A breath-hold ascent in an 18ft pool killed a student 2-3 years ago in a training incident. It's also reasonable to assume any non-AGE dcs symptoms wouldn't onset instantaneously, especially when panic and adrenalin might be masking them.

 

[Reef_Haven]

A single dive to 102' max for total dive time 35 mins on 36%.
No way in hell I'd try to complete a safety stop with 0 PSI.

 

[ahava]

A single dive to 102' max for total dive time 35 mins on 36%.
No way in hell I'd try to complete a safety stop with 0 PSI.

If you stayed at that depth the entire dive, V-planner set at +2 conservative(what I dive) would give me a 4 min mandatory DECO stop at 20ft.. If I had to, I would drain the tank dry to meet this obligation.

 

[Hatul]

According to my calculation 36% nitrox gives a ppO2 of 1.47 bar at 102 ft and should not be used on this dive.

The diver got distracted by fishing or was narced and did not check his SPG. This is like a deja vue. I keep seeing this situation on the accident board and is an argument for AI computer display where the pressure is displayed with the depth and times so every time he checks his depth he sees his tank pressure.

 

[Tortuga68]

If you stayed at that depth the entire dive, V-planner set at +2 conservative(what I dive) would give me a 4 min mandatory DECO stop at 20ft

Have you ever done a dive where the entire dive time was at the maximum depth?

According to my calculation 36% nitrox gives a ppO2 of 1.47 bar at 102 ft and should not be used on this dive.

The diver got distracted by fishing or was narced and did not check his SPG. This is like a deja vue. I keep seeing this situation on the accident board and is an argument for AI computer display where the pressure is displayed with the depth and times so every time he checks his depth he sees his tank pressure

Sounds like an equipment solution to a skills problem

Also 0.076 bar over 1.4 PP isn't going to kill anyone

 

[ahava]

Have you ever done a dive where the entire dive time was at the maximum depth?

YES


Sounds like an equipment solution to a skills problem

Also 0.076 bar over 1.4 PP isn't going to kill anyone

You dont know this!!! 1.4 pp02 is not a guarentee.

 

[ahava]

Have you ever done a dive where the entire dive time was at the maximum depth?

YES

Sounds like an equipment solution to a skills problem

Also 0.076 bar over 1.4 PP isn't going to kill anyone

You dont know this!!! 1.4pp02 is not a guarentee.