Feb 19 2017 Cozumel diving fatality

[Ravenware]

Such a distressful experience. Thanks so much for sharing your first hand information with us. I don't mean to second guess your efforts as it seems like you two tried your best to help the lady, but I do wonder if you ditched her weights? Sad that she was alone.

Yeah, it's bad for business.

It is one of those things I wish was easier to learn. I do not know all the equipment on the market. I dive with a weight belt. She had an integrated BC and the dump handle was not visible nor easy to identify. Quite frankly, she had probably been gone for more than 30 minutes when I found her. If, as the commenters have implied, the DM left her to ascend and went back to finish the dive, I believe they were already on the surface and looking for her when we ascended. We were told by the captain of the boat that came first to help us that there was a missing woman a boat was looking for. They asked me if it was a male or female.

She was kneeling on the reef. No disturbance to the surrounding area. It looked like she just floated down and stopped. If she had a stroke, I suspect she was already gone when she landed on the reef, no reg in her mouth.

I learned a few things. My husband and I have been diving 22 years and have over a thousand dives each.

First, I had nothing on me that I could use to attract the attention of my group or my husband, who was below me. I did not want to leave where I was, fearing I would not find her again.

Secondly, I did not have a buoy that worked. My buoy was 20 years old, been in my pocket that long, and never used.

Third, I did not have a whistle or noise maker to attract a boat when we surfaced.

Too complacent, diving Cozumel for 21 years, just made me complacent. I can promise you, all of this will be remedied.

Sorry for your bad time. Did you release her weights, belt or integrated?

See my response below regarding weights.

 

[DiverJ1234]

I was on the boat that located the drowned diver immediately before they were brought to the surface. We were 6 relatively inexperienced divers, along with a single DM, and captain. Very sad day, my condolences to the victims family, I wish the outcome were better.

I apologize in advance I didn't look at a watch the entire time during this sequence of events. If anyone else involved has an idea as to the timing, please enlighten us.

We came up from our first dive of the day in fairly rough waters, and we removed our gear in-water (per our Captains request). At that time there was loud radio chatter in spanish, the DM said someone had drowned. We got on the boat and after 10 mins to get all the divers on the boat/equipment passed up and safely stowed, we set off to meet several other dive boats and assist in the search. The boat that lost the diver was communicating, but I'm told was quite panicked and unclear. Our Captain put the info together and realized all the boats in the search convoy were probably 1 reef too far north. We went 1 reef south, and our DM went snorkling with an SMB to try located the downed diver. After another 5-10 minutes they were located approx 25-30 ft down, weights were dropped attached to an SMB left to signal the location, the other boats were notified. Another boat came almost immediately with 2 divers and no one else on board and jumped in/retrieved the diver with BCD, didn't get a look at weights. Once on the boat, the driver quickly set course north towards to hospitals/possibly EMT.

No CPR was started from what I could see, but one of the rescuing divers was possibly doing an airway assessment. Regardless, in adult in warm water for that length of time (30+ minutes, possibly 45+) has virtually zero chance of survival. I am curious though who makes the call of futility there - the rescue divers on the boat likely don't have that kind of training, and in Canada even EMTs have to call a base hospital doc to abort CPR in many settings.

I was told search and rescue were called, but didn't see the boat in the 20+ minutes of commotion. Also heard anecdotally that this isn't an uncommon scenario to have an uncomfortably long wait for search and rescue.

I have heard rumors that the BCD power-inflater hose was known to be faulty at the surface, and the dive was initiated anyways. I was then told, as others have said that the diver was left to surface on their own after running low on air (Doesn't quite coincide with Ravenware seeing a half tank of air - perhaps it was other problems that necessitated the ascent). By the time she was rescued it was said that she had zero air in her tank. Tough to say what exactly happened, not all the details line up. Does seem relatively clear that faulty equipment, and an overly cavalier attitude about it, played a role.

I was the diver who found this woman, and my husband and I tried to bring her to the surface and were not able to. We tried to reconnect her BC hose so we could inflate her, she had a half tank of air. At first I just saw a tank and rig. I thought maybe it had fallen from a boat. Then as I looked closer, being carried by current, my perspective changed and I saw what looked like legs. I looked around for other divers, her head was down like she was kneeling on the reef and I thought maybe the diver was looking at something and holding a breath. But after a minute of looking, I could see there were no bubbles. I was probably 100 feet away, I saw her and had her in my sights for at least the 3 minutes it took me to get my husbands attention and swim to her. In all that time there were no bubbles, and also no sign of a struggle. Her regulator was not in her mouth. We both inflated our BCs and tried to bring her up. We were at about 35-40 feet. My husband is a trained rescue diver, but we could not revive her. I was surprised that no officials wanted a statement from us. I reported what I could to Dan. The island does not like this kind of news to get out. It bothered me greatly that she was alone.

 

[lovedivingalways]

I dove with this DM in Dec. I had to report to Mau that he was not safe.

 

[DandyDon]

It is one of those things I wish was easier to learn. I do not know all the equipment on the market. I dive with a weight belt. She had an integrated BC and the dump handle was not visible nor easy to identify.

Many of us don't. I've thought about painting my weight pocket handles yellow, but I don't know if that would help. Buddies should brief each other on their weights and do practice pulls at least, but she was buddyless. You did great, as much as you could.

Quite frankly, she had probably been gone for more than 30 minutes when I found her.

Yeah, it sounds like a hopeless scene. We want to do whatever we can, but sometimes there is no chance. You tried your best.

Too complacent, diving Cozumel for 21 years, just made me complacent. I can promise you, all of this will be remedied.

Well, don't beat yourself up. You were great and did all you could possible. An admirable statement tho. Best wishes on continued dives and improvements, altho I hope you never have another time like this. I'm making a note to myself that if I ever have to help someone in a similar situation, but can't ditch weights, then ditch BC - except I'd hate to lose grip if I did.

I didn't look at a watch the entire time during this sequence of events.

No one would. I don't know about the rest of the details. If she'd been found by California life guards, it may have gone better, but with the same end. You folks did all you could.

 

[redacted]

I dove with this DM in Dec. I had to report to Mau that he was not safe.

What made you think he was not safe?

 

[JulesC]

I was the diver who found this woman, and my husband and I tried to bring her to the surface and were not able to. We tried to reconnect her BC hose so we could inflate her, she had a half tank of air. At first I just saw a tank and rig. I thought maybe it had fallen from a boat. Then as I looked closer, being carried by current, my perspective changed and I saw what looked like legs. I looked around for other divers, her head was down like she was kneeling on the reef and I thought maybe the diver was looking at something and holding a breath. But after a minute of looking, I could see there were no bubbles. I was probably 100 feet away, I saw her and had her in my sights for at least the 3 minutes it took me to get my husbands attention and swim to her. In all that time there were no bubbles, and also no sign of a struggle. Her regulator was not in her mouth. We both inflated our BCs and tried to bring her up. We were at about 35-40 feet. My husband is a trained rescue diver, but we could not revive her. I was surprised that no officials wanted a statement from us. I reported what I could to Dan. The island does not like this kind of news to get out. It bothered me greatly that she was alone.

Thank you for your efforts. I lost contact with Tammy over the years but she was a high spirited & fun woman. This couldn't have been easy for you or your husband. My sons are both advanced divers & explained to me how wrong it was that she was alone.

 

[candacebot]

@Ravenware, thank you for doing what you could, and especially thank you from a new diver for sharing your learning takeaways. A pertinent reminder.

@JulesC - so sorry for your loss.

 

[JenLoves2Dive]

I want to say to Ravenware, how my heart goes out to you and your husband. You did the right thing. You tried to help, and quickly realized that you could not without jeopardizing your own safety, you ascended and quickly signaled for help. I can not imagine how hard this is for you. You have the support of your fellow divers.

It is tragic and my heart goes out to this young woman and her family.

With that being said, I do need to ask a couple of questions to the group here.
First of all, I live in Cozumel full time, I have been diving in Cozumel for 22 years and moved here five years ago.
I have read through a lot of these comments and I see several things that are very concerning to me.
First and most importantly -- How many times did divers here on this board mention in other comments about the "faulty, stuck or disconnected", power inflator valve?? (Speculative at this point, but let's explore that situation.)
Out of those of you that made that comment to the fact, how many of you have over 50 scuba dives? Or have advanced certifications? As tragic as this is, there is a very disturbing issue here and one I hope that I can bring to light, before someone else makes a mistake. PLEASE!

The inflator valve is connected to a LOW PRESSURE hose. Please think about that for a moment.
1.) If the inflator button gets stuck, you can easily disconnect the hose underwater.
2.) Many people can easily reconnect the hose underwater (most of the time).
3.) If you can not reconnect the hose underwater, then you can easily manually inflate your BC, orally!! This is one of the first things you learn to do when you get certified.

If you have somehow forgotten this basic skill/exercise when you first got certified, then you need to get into a pool or a safe shallow area and PRACTICE this skill. I am shocked how many people are bringing this up as if it weren't easily resolved above or underwater! To me, that is extremely concerning.

PS DiverJ1234 - You said you don't speak Spanish, (at least by your comment it appears you do not) and, as you stated, you are relatively inexperienced divers, then why are making all these assumptions (too many too even start listing here). It is a VERY unfortunate and sad event but you are not helping anything by quoting "rumor" as you stated and making speculations (based on what fact). I am very sorry for everyone involved but I do not see how you are helping the situation at all. I am so sorry you were witness to this tragedy.

 

[scubafanatic]

With respect to dealing with BC inflator 'issues', going to manual bailout in very controlled training class environment is very different than doing it in the deep blue, at depth, in a drift current. I'll admit it's been quite a few years (2001) since I went through BOW class, and I don't remember the training in detail, (and perhaps current standards have been improved over the subsequent years?) but orally inflating at BC, while already on the surface, in a pool...or kneeling on the bottom of a pool, and orally inflating from there to simply go up to the surface, aren't very rigorous 'standards' relative to operating in the real world. If you are mid-water-column, fighting to not sink, trying to switch back and forth between breathing off the reg and trying to inflate, compounded by possible severe equalization issues/pain/vertigo, and remember, with ever increasing depth you have to inject an ever rapidly increasing amount of air into the BC air cell to prevent runaway decent...snowballing to disaster!

A while back I switched over to the expensive Scubapro balanced power inflators because the generic inflators struggle to keep up with increasing depth.

 

[DiverJ1234]

Let me try clarify a few points
1) My boat was directly involved in the rescue of the diver, so felt that despite my inexperience my recount of events would be helpful to hear for people
2) I don't speak Spanish, but my DM did, and he provided translation, most of the people on the island speak English, but yes the radio chatter was in Spanish. One can pick up on volume, pace of speech, tone - certainly sounded like a panicked Captain to me, and the sense of panic was described by our DM who again translated.
3) We are close with our DM and he ascertained other information through the diving community after the event, again he was directly involved, and located the drowned diver before they were brought to the surface (we were on the boat, and saw the entire rescue).

As for the "speculations that are too many to list"
1) CPR - Theres many articles detailing the non-survivability of drowning past ~30 mins in adults in warm water. I'm also a physician.
2) Search and Rescue - Yes, I didn't call them myself, but our DM said S&R were called and on the radio channel, we were waiting for them, they actually physically were not present (which I saw with my eyes as proof). Our DM has waited up to an hour for S&R in other instances.
3) Power inflator - My DM was told that the hose was known to be faulty and the DM on that boat disconnected it at the surface pre-dive and instructed the diver to continue on. I'm not sure who told him, my proof is I was told by my DM, who was directly involved in the rescue.
4) Diver surfacing - Again my DM was informed the diver was accompanied to the surface, and was later found underwater but unfortunately unable to be rescued (probably Ravenware).

As a diver, yes I'm not really qualified to make many assumptions as to what went on beyond what I'm told - the power inflator was clearly a problem. As a physician here are my concerns:
1) I would have liked to see a more aggressive rescue effort by the dive ops - they located her, but wanted to want to wait for S&R as it would "disturb the investigation" - She was assumed dead before being brought to the surface, I was quite forcefully vocal that if someone had the skills to surface the diver, we didn't know the time line, and resuscitation efforts should be started immediately
2) I offered my services to assist in the attempted resuscitation, but the rescuing dive boat was gone too quickly (not that I had much to offer but CPR that would have produced no change in outcome, even if we were in an ICU at that moment the chance of recovery was unfortunately likely gone).
3) The equipment on the boat consists of an oxygen tank and tent-style face mask, no BVM seems like a glaring oversight - most people are not performing mouth-mouth CPR on an unknown victim.
4) Search and rescue never appeared
Here the prognosis was dismal from the outset, but in a different set of circumstances (less time under, small child), they are not setup/trained to have a different outcome

PS DiverJ1234 - You said you don't speak Spanish, (at least by your comment it appears you do not) and, as you stated, you are relatively inexperienced divers, then why are making all these assumptions (too many too even start listing here). It is a VERY unfortunate and sad event but you are not helping anything by quoting "rumor" as you stated and making speculations (based on what fact). I am very sorry for everyone involved but I do not see how you are helping the situation at all. I am so sorry you were witness to this tragedy.