Key West Spear Diver

[BUGBAGGER]

Joe he is a spearo, kevin is a member of spearboard, so he was past being a recreational scuba diver.

Interesting statement. I am also a spearo, member of Spearboard and a SCUBA diver. I don't feel that being a spearo or a member of Spearboard makes me "past" being a recreational diver. Was your comment meant facitiously? I wish I could say that I had met more spearos and SCUBA divers who self assessed more as my first dive mentor did.

One of my first dive mentors would check the box for intermediate diver to describe his experience even when he had more than 5000 SCUBA dives and enumerable breath hold dives. He did so as his mentors then had 2 to 3 times as many dives and he felt he still had so much to learn.

I believe his understanding of the benefit of humble self assessment has greatly contributed to his ability to now have logged more than 15000 SCUBA dives and countless more breath hold dives. My goal is to match his humbleness in this regard.

 

[trtldvr]

For 7 years before I left KW, I taught the high school dive class, (an Honors science class in conjunction with Florida Keys Community College). This was by far my favorite class to teach for the kids enthusiasm and comfort level was incredible. The curriculum called for me to spend the first 2 weeks on freedive skills, which often was a joke for many of them already possesed skills far beyond mine; I think they learned to freedive before they learned to walk.

In that time I have seen and worked with many "spearo's". Because of their enthusiasm and comfort level was also paired with "teenage invincibility" I often felt the need to share detailed accounts of my experiences from the Sheriff's Office dive team to scare them straight, so to speak. The story that often worked was when I used the case of another KW high senior that had drowned while freedive spearing. The story worked because they knew him, but as the years passed the story was less effective because he was not anyone they knew. I would hope instuctors use cases like this to drive points home, but dive shop opporators often don't like to dwell on the dark side of diving. I remember my OW instructor looking out of the class room door for the owners any time he was going to talk about the "Oh S#$T" situations.

As I have said this was a science honors class and even though it was a OW class the accedemics were taught at the DM level. These kids could calculate consumtion rates frontwards and backwards. Gas management was stressed over and over, but ultimatly these skills often have little meaning to a teen-ager who is in a comfort zone and has a grouper in his sights not unlike a highly trained tech diver about to get one more china cup.

Safe dives
Trtldvr

 

[reefman]

in todays paper

http://keysnews.com/node/32874

reefman
key largo

 

[trtldvr]

The family, which was making funeral arrangements Wednesday, requested memorial donations be made to the Divers Alert Network. The family's hope is that all Keys hospitals will have hyperbaric chambers one day. Only Mariners Hospital in Tavernier is equipped with one now.
"We're the diving capital of the world, but we really need a chamber here," Piper Sr. said. "I hope that this tragedy will help make that possible."



1. I commend the family for asking for memorial donations to DAN.

2. The family makes a very good point about the chambers. This has been an on going battle for close to 30 years and one I was involveld with during my time in KW. Florida Keys Community College (FKCC) is directly across the street from Lower Keys Medical Center (LKMC) and their dive department has 2 fully functional chambers complete with O2 sitting in a modern building donated by the former Sheriff, Rick Roth. There has been many attempts to work out an agreement between the 2 facilities, FKCC and LKMC, to use the chambers for treatment, but ultimatly the question of liability keeps getting in the way. In the mean time the chambers are only used for training and those in need of treatment will continue to be flown to Miami. One can hope that this incident may work as a catalyst to break thru the politics and get the job done.


Now having said that, speaking as a critical care RN and former employee of LKMC, and also speaking as a Dive instructor, chamber tech and former employee of FKCC, I don't think this patient would have been treated at FKCC's chambers even had they been available. The severity of his injuries dictated he be flown to a major hospital. Mercy is much better equipped to handle a case such as this and that is where his best odds were, even factoring in the delay for transportation.

 

[trtldvr]

Army school prepared to treat diver
Life-support equipment too large for hyperbaric chamber
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
[SIZE=+0]When Kevin Piper Jr., a 16-year-old scuba diving enthusiast, was rushed to shore Sunday after surfacing too quickly, personnel at an elite Army scuba warfare school on Fleming Key were standing by to treat him in one of the facility's two hyperbaric chambers. But the Cudjoe Key teenager, who died Tuesday in a Miami hospital, apparently required bulky life-sustaining medical equipment that was too large to fit into the military school's hyperbaric chambers.
"When we were alerted of this incident Sunday, we prepared our chamber and were ready to support, but doctors made the call to send him to Miami," said Maj. Trevor Hill, commander at the Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School.
Piper was airlifted to Mercy Hospital in Miami, which is well equipped to handle dive-related injuries.
Hyperbaric chambers, which are pressurized with pure oxygen, are used to treat decompression sickness, which occurs when scuba divers surface too quickly.
Hill said the underwater operations school's two chambers are too small for some life-support equipment, such as ventilators or cardiac defibrillators. But the chambers and trained personnel are available in most emergencies.
"There's always a doctor stationed in my company and we have a close working relationship with Lower Keys Medical Center," he said. "They determine if the casualty is so urgent that the patient can't make it to Tavernier or Miami. If that civilian or military member is in a life-or-death situation, we immediately suspend training and prepare our team for a real-world casualty -- just as we did Sunday."
In less critical cases, patients are usually taken to a hospital equipped to handle decompression accidents.
"If the injury is routine or not urgent, the diver is evacuated to Mariners Hospital," Hill said. "While we stand by to save a life when it is possible, we are not equipped to handle every routine diving injury that occurs in the area."
Mariners Hospital in Tavernier is the only Keys hospital hyperbaric chamber, said hospital spokeswoman Sheila Konczewski.
"It's used for wound and burn patients, as well as for diving accidents," she said.
Last year, Mariners treated 17 patients with decompression sickness or dive-related illness, and have treated four such patients this year, Konczewski said.
"Fortunately, we use it far more for burn patients and treating those with wounds that won't heal," she said.
"When I'm on the water, I'm always looking to Tavernier," said dive master Joe Weatherby. "I haven't had an incident in quite a long time, but that's the closest [chamber]. That's what I've always been told."
Spencer Slate, owner of Captain Slate's Atlantis Dive Center in Key Largo, has been diving since 1963. He said the chamber at Mariners Hospital is rarely used when you consider the number of people who dive Keys waters.
"I have to give the dive operators credit," Slate said. "Given the amount of people we take out, we've had relatively few chamber issues. It's been years since I've had to take someone to Mariners -- I can think of only two in 33 years."
There also are two functioning chambers at the Lower Keys Community College, but their use is restricted to training, said dive instructor Bob Smith, who was director of the college's dive program for 23 years.
Smith said the college's chambers cannot be used to treat patients because the college is not a medical treatment facility.
Piper's father has asked that donations be made to the Divers Alert Network for another hyperbaric chamber in the Lower Keys.
alinhardt@keysnews.com

[/SIZE]

 

[KWBuddy]

Now having said that, speaking as a critical care RN and former employee of LKMC, and also speaking as a Dive instructor, chamber tech and former employee of FKCC, I don't think this patient would have been treated at FKCC's chambers even had they been available. The severity of his injuries dictated he be flown to a major hospital. Mercy is much better equipped to handle a case such as this and that is where his best odds were, even factoring in the delay for transportation.

I have no real experience with this kind of situation so please forgive my ignorance.

If the chamber at Fleming Key was available, why would it be beneficial to take him to a major hospital? Would it not have been better for him to get recompressed in an oxygen rich environment immediately rather than to delay treatment?

It seems to me that this is yet another case of the course of treatment being driven by the desire to minimize liability rather than doing what is in the best interest of the patient.

I realize that the reason given for not treating him on Fleming Key was that he "required bulky life-sustaining medical equipment that was too large to fit into the military school's hyperbaric chambers."

Still, he died. I wonder if that had taken a chance recompressing him immediately without the benefit of whatever it was that wouldn't have fit into the chamber, if he would have lived? Or was he too far gone?

In any case, it is sad that a young man who seemed to be at home in the water had to die such a tragic death.

My condolences to friends and family.

--

Bud

 

[Scott L]

I have no real experience with this kind of situation so please forgive my ignorance.

If the chamber at Fleming Key was available, why would it be beneficial to take him to a major hospital? Would it not have been better for him to get recompressed in an oxygen rich environment immediately rather than to delay treatment?

It seems to me that this is yet another case of the course of treatment being driven by the desire to minimize liability rather than doing what is in the best interest of the patient.

I realize that the reason given for not treating him on Fleming Key was that he "required bulky life-sustaining medical equipment that was too large to fit into the military school's hyperbaric chambers."

Still, he died. I wonder if that had taken a chance recompressing him immediately without the benefit of whatever it was that wouldn't have fit into the chamber, if he would have lived? Or was he too far gone?

In any case, it is sad that a young man who seemed to be at home in the water had to die such a tragic death.

My condolences to friends and family.

--

Bud

From the post above, this is the probable reason.

"But the Cudjoe Key teenager, who died Tuesday in a Miami hospital, apparently required bulky life-sustaining medical equipment that was too large to fit into the military school's hyperbaric chambers."

"Hill said the underwater operations school's two chambers are too small for some life-support equipment, such as ventilators or cardiac defibrillators."

 

[trtldvr]

I have no real experience with this kind of situation so please forgive my ignorance.

If the chamber at Fleming Key was available, why would it be beneficial to take him to a major hospital? Would it not have been better for him to get recompressed in an oxygen rich environment immediately rather than to delay treatment?




This is a fair question, maybe this will help.

Imagine a car accident instead of a diving accident. If the victem has a couple broken bones the local ER is the best call, but in cases of major trauma a medivac flight to a Level 1 trauma center greatly increases the chance of survival even with the 45 minut flight time. Multiple systems are involved and they all must be managed, this takes more resourses than the local ER possesses.

We do not know the extent of this young diver's injuries, but the likelyhood of multiple system involvement is high.

I hope this helps.

Safe dives
Trtldvr

 

[ScubaNurse758]

By definition, "requiring life-sustaining equipment" means that without the equipment life cannot be sustained. Therefore taking them off said equipment to put them into a chamber would result in a non-life-sustaining state, death.

 

[WetDawg]

So the purpose of this accident forum is to hopefully learn from tragic experiences such as this one so that others may avoid them.

The core of what went wrong here is that a 16 year old child (yes, child, the law says so) was allowed to dive solo. Does anyone here really think that is OK?

Regardless of the child’s experience level, certification level, total number of dives, or “comfort in the water” I can tell you one thing for sure his parents had no business allowing him to dive solo, period. A minor child cannot legally sign waivers nor make decisions as such for themselves. Just like buying your kid alcohol or cigarettes or allowing them to drive when unlicensed I think this is totally and utterly wrong. In fact, where serious harm is done it can be a CRIME. Buy your kid drinks and let him drive, he gets in an accident, it’s your fault. Period.

The saddest part of this tragedy is that it was TOTALY AVOIDABLE had one of the adults in the boat exercised some basic common sense.

Sadder still is that there are still a bunch of people who live down here in South Florida who “grew up on the water” and have been “diving their whole life” and think that they are invincible and therefore are very lax in their respect for the underwater environment. Tragically they pass this lack of respect on to their children.