Filmmaker Rob Stewart dies off Alligator Reef

[wedivebc]

I am wondering how a medical examiner can actually make a finding of hypoxia, or hypoglycemia-- seems to me these attributes are very transient and would not be all that accurate to measure several days after death.

I have been wondering the same thing. If a victim's lungs are filled with water this is called a drowning. Once your lungs are filled with water you are most certainly hypoxic. How is the coroner able to determine the mechanism that caused the drowning?
I am also still confused as to how two rebreather divers, one quite experienced run out of O2 at the same time. There are still lots of questions in my mind.

 

[oya]

I'm no pathologist, but I think that there are characteristic types of tissue damage that occur with different injuries and which will persist after death. For example, you might see tissue bubbles in DCS, you might see dilated cerebral vessels or microhemorrhages in hypercapnea. And in hypoxia, there are apparently changes in the neurons.

Tissue hypoxia can be caused by both underperfusion (like with a heart attack or a stroke caused by blood vessel occlusion) or by systemic hypoxia (from suffocation or hypoxic dil). If the pathologist finds no reason to suspect a perfusion problem, but they see evidence of neuronal hypoxic injury, in this setting they might conclude the most likely cause of hypoxia.

Goddamn it, Mike, this is no place for facts and deductive reasoning. This is where we all come for wild speculation and gut reactions!

 

[tbone1004]

 

[dmaziuk]

I think so...but I am no physiologist. Seems to me breathing atmospheric air would quickly, but not immediately reverse a hypoxia event.

From my recollection of rear neck chokes it takes a couple of seconds to black out and at least a couple of seconds for the light and sounds to start coming back. More to actually become coherent. If the unit becomes negative and you start sinking in matter of seconds, it'd be at best a crap shoot: if you are not that far gone, and if you sink slowly enough and so on.

 

[C Dub]

I am wondering how a medical examiner can actually make a finding of hypoxia, or hypoglycemia-- seems to me these attributes are very transient and would not be all that accurate to measure several days after death.

The CCR computer should have logged depth of 0-2 feet, depending on where it was worn on his arm, along with the time at that depth,,and the PPO2 during that time. Makes the diagnosis of hypoxia pretty much fully documented.

 

[Wookie]

The CCR computer should have logged depth of 0-2 feet, depending on where it was worn on his arm, along with the time at that depth,,and the PPO2 during that time. Makes the diagnosis of hypoxia pretty much fully documented.

And if the good doctor didn't actually see the setpoint controller? If he chose not to attend the briefing at NEDU? If he based his findings on something else?

 

[C Dub]

And if the good doctor didn't actually see the setpoint controller? If he chose not to attend the briefing at NEDU? If he based his findings on something else?

Wow, that is surprising. To ignore that is....Incompetent? Not sure what the right word is.

 

[The Chairman]

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[kafkaland]

Wow, that is surprising. To ignore that is....Incompetent? Not sure what the right word is.

I'm not sure if I would call it incompetent. A medical examiner has generally a very narrow area of expertise, and it certainly does not include technical CCR diving. And when there is no foul play suspected, the examination will likely be brief, and a simple cause of death, like drowning, hypoxia, or such be stated. From the medical examiner's point of view, there is nothing to be gained by a more in-depth investigation. The victim remains dead, and the whole thing remains an accident, no matter what the particulars of the incidents are. Unless, of course, a case for manslaughter can be made, but that doesn't seem likely here. Then a much more thorough investigation from the authorities would be in order. And helping a civil case or other divers through accident analysis, is outside the scope of the ME's duties, as regrettable as that may be.

 

[Doc Ben]

Interesting debate between the insiders. Wonder how they would debate now that more info has been revealed?? Have they changed their tune?