How many Scuba incidents are actual true drowning Vs. something else? (Heart attack)

[Bigeclipse]

Does anyone have stats on how many scuba fatalities are true drownings Vs. something else occurring causing the person to also drown such as a stroke, heart attack, blacking out etc?

 

[Seaweed Doc]

The definition of drowning would include a person who has a medical event that doesn't kill them but leads to their drowning.

Similarly, if you have an equipment or entanglement issue that leads to drowning, it's still drowning.

What's left? Don't know how to swim or forget due to panic? Get stranded at sea and your strength fails?

 

[Bigeclipse]

The definition of drowning would include a person who has a medical event that doesn't kill them but leads to their drowning.

Similarly, if you have an equipment or entanglement issue that leads to drowning, it's still drowning.

What's left? Don't know how to swim or forget due to panic? Get stranded at sea and your strength fails?

im just wondering if there is correlation to scuba deaths from a health standpoint versus actually running out of air and drowning. How many people die scuba diving because they actually did something WRONG in their dive which lead to drowning Versus how many scuba fatalities (categorized as drownings) were because of some other health factor.

 

[flyboy08]

Well one conclusion correlation is the outcome.

 

[maj2]

Alex Brylske's book, The Complete Diver" gives some of these stats in Chapter 11 from a variety of apparent (mostly DAN) sources:
He cites DAN (no date given) that "heart disease accounts for or contributes to about a quarter of all diving fatalities. By comparison, air embolism and decompression sickness accounted for only 8 percent and 1 percent, respectively."
He also notes that "in a review of autopsies on recreational scuba divers between 1989 and 1992, another DAN report showed that of 33 cases of sudden death while diving, 31 were attributed to coronary disease."
And he mentions another study of diver autopsies where "more than 50% of subjects showed a narrowing of the arteries (stenosis) around the heart..."

 

[happy-diver]

all my death stats stem from issues whether known or unknown that have progressed beyond control

 

[clownfishsydney]

Hard to know the real situation about many diving deaths due to autopsies being done by doctors without any knowledge of scuba diving. Also, it is now believed that many deaths previously attributed to drowning were actually/probably immersion pulmonary edema (IPE) as the final results can/do look similar as you do drown from IPE, just that it is in your own body fluids.

 

[almostDIR]

im just wondering if there is correlation to scuba deaths from a health standpoint versus actually running out of air and drowning. How many people die scuba diving because they actually did something WRONG in their dive which lead to drowning Versus how many scuba fatalities (categorized as drownings) were because of some other health factor.

I believe the avalanche of problems which may ultimately lead to drowning is most of the time caused by the diver doing something wrong first which didn't seem like that big of a deal until it developed to something much more serious some moments later.

Ignoring previous medical history or not keeping track of air consumption or not taking care of your buddy or diving with non serviced or lacking equipment or doing a dive too demanding to ones skill level etc etc.
It might not be a big deal until some other minor thing happens at the same time and then the diver is overwhelmed and there goes the avalanche.