Missed Safety Stop. Go Back Down?

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Mia Tegner's death should be a good lesson about going back down just to make a safety stop.
Right. Her death was solely caused by her decision to go back down for a missed safety stop.

By Terry Rodgers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER February 7, 2001

A prominent San Diego marine biologist drowned as a result of unsafe diving procedures and the apparent failure of a weight-release device that would have allowed her to surface quickly.

That's the conclusion of a team of diving experts asked by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office to examine evidence gathered after the Jan. 7 death of ocean scientist Mia Tegner.

Tegner, 53, an expert diver and researcher with UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, had been diving at Wreck Alley off Mission Beach to chart the growth of marine life. She was with four other divers, including her husband, Eric Hanauer.

The report by the Diving Death Review Committee, chaired by San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Brant Bass, provides the following account of Tegner's last dive:

Tegner, who was on her second dive that afternoon, was exploring a shipwreck in 85 feet of water with her husband, who was her diving partner. After being down for 20 minutes, Hanauer started to run out of air, and he surfaced.

Tegner continued her dive alone. Shortly thereafter, her air supply also became low, and she ascended.

Upon reaching the surface, Tegner told someone aboard the boat that her diver's computer was telling her she needed additional decompression time. She grabbed another diver's partially depleted air tank, which still had a buoyancy vest attached, and descended with it under her arm.

About four minutes later, the air tank and buoyancy vest bobbed to the surface.

Tegner's husband immediately went down to look for her, but ran low on air before he could find her. A San Diego lifeguard diver later discovered her body on the ocean floor.

The expert panel believes Tegner ran out of air before completing her "safety stop," a final pause of three to five minutes in 15 to 25 feet of water. It's a routine procedure to provide an extra margin of safety to eliminate any remaining nitrogen bubbles in a diver's blood.

It appears Tegner used some of her limited air supply to inflate the buoyancy vest attached to the second air tank, which probably slipped from her grasp, the report stated.

She couldn't rise to the surface without inflating her buoyancy vest or injecting air into her diving suit, the report states, which wasn't possible because her own air tank was depleted.

"Her motor skills may have been impaired by diving decompression sickness or an arterial gas embolism, which may have led to her losing her grasp of the second tank, which was most likely her only source of air and buoyancy at the time," the report states.

Tegner also was carrying 40.5 pounds of weights, which may have been too much, the report suggests.

Tegner could have saved herself by releasing the diver's weights attached to her buoyancy vest. However, an examination of her weight device -- a case containing lead balls rather than the traditional dive belt -- found that the release pin "was bent to a degree that the weights would have been very difficult to release," the report states.

Having run out of air and sinking, Tegner was unable to unbuckle and remove her weights. The report says decompression sickness -- also called the bends -- may have impaired her judgment.

An autopsy found she had an air embolism, but that could have occurred after death when divers recovered her body, Bass said.

The report concluded the accident could have been avoided if at least four procedures had been followed:

If Tegner had "maintained her gear in such a way that dropping the weights could have been accomplished." If she had been diving with less weight. If she had stayed with her diving partner. If she had "managed her air and her dive profile in a way that would have left adequate reserves for a decompression safety stop and buoyancy."
 
Mia Tegner's death should be a good lesson about going back down just to make a safety stop.
I'm not familiar with that accident and my google fu has only yielded this minimal description:
source: Scripps Institution Researcher Found Drowned Off San Diego
The Scripps researcher and her companions had been exploring the wreckage of the El Rey when she began to run out of oxygen and returned to the surface about 2 p.m., Bass said.

Tegner went back under the water, cradling a second air tank under her arm, to make a more gradual return to the surface to avoid decompression sickness. A few minutes later, her companions saw the second tank float to the surface and began searching for her, he said.

"This was a very strenuous thing she was doing, juggling two scuba tanks," Bass said.

That makes it sound like she ran OOA and missed a full deco stop rather than a simple missed safety stop. Can you share any more detail?
 
I'm not familiar with that accident and my google fu has only yielded this minimal description:
source: Scripps Institution Researcher Found Drowned Off San Diego


That makes it sound like she ran OOA and missed a full deco stop rather than a simple missed safety stop. Can you share any more detail?
See my post above yours. It was way, way more than that.
 
You gotta concede, though, that at least three things have to go wrong for it to become an accident. She scored 4.
 
Right. Her death was solely caused by her decision to go back down for a missed safety stop.

By Terry Rodgers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER February 7, 2001

A prominent San Diego marine biologist drowned as a result of unsafe diving procedures and the apparent failure of a weight-release device that would have allowed her to surface quickly.

That's the conclusion of a team of diving experts asked by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office to examine evidence gathered after the Jan. 7 death of ocean scientist Mia Tegner.

Tegner, 53, an expert diver and researcher with UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, had been diving at Wreck Alley off Mission Beach to chart the growth of marine life. She was with four other divers, including her husband, Eric Hanauer.

The report by the Diving Death Review Committee, chaired by San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Brant Bass, provides the following account of Tegner's last dive:

Tegner, who was on her second dive that afternoon, was exploring a shipwreck in 85 feet of water with her husband, who was her diving partner. After being down for 20 minutes, Hanauer started to run out of air, and he surfaced.

Tegner continued her dive alone. Shortly thereafter, her air supply also became low, and she ascended.

Upon reaching the surface, Tegner told someone aboard the boat that her diver's computer was telling her she needed additional decompression time. She grabbed another diver's partially depleted air tank, which still had a buoyancy vest attached, and descended with it under her arm.

About four minutes later, the air tank and buoyancy vest bobbed to the surface.

Tegner's husband immediately went down to look for her, but ran low on air before he could find her. A San Diego lifeguard diver later discovered her body on the ocean floor.

The expert panel believes Tegner ran out of air before completing her "safety stop," a final pause of three to five minutes in 15 to 25 feet of water. It's a routine procedure to provide an extra margin of safety to eliminate any remaining nitrogen bubbles in a diver's blood.

It appears Tegner used some of her limited air supply to inflate the buoyancy vest attached to the second air tank, which probably slipped from her grasp, the report stated.

She couldn't rise to the surface without inflating her buoyancy vest or injecting air into her diving suit, the report states, which wasn't possible because her own air tank was depleted.

"Her motor skills may have been impaired by diving decompression sickness or an arterial gas embolism, which may have led to her losing her grasp of the second tank, which was most likely her only source of air and buoyancy at the time," the report states.

Tegner also was carrying 40.5 pounds of weights, which may have been too much, the report suggests.

Tegner could have saved herself by releasing the diver's weights attached to her buoyancy vest. However, an examination of her weight device -- a case containing lead balls rather than the traditional dive belt -- found that the release pin "was bent to a degree that the weights would have been very difficult to release," the report states.

Having run out of air and sinking, Tegner was unable to unbuckle and remove her weights. The report says decompression sickness -- also called the bends -- may have impaired her judgment.

An autopsy found she had an air embolism, but that could have occurred after death when divers recovered her body, Bass said.

The report concluded the accident could have been avoided if at least four procedures had been followed:

If Tegner had "maintained her gear in such a way that dropping the weights could have been accomplished." If she had been diving with less weight. If she had stayed with her diving partner. If she had "managed her air and her dive profile in a way that would have left adequate reserves for a decompression safety stop and buoyancy."

That's the kind of thing I was talking about. While she clearly had some other issues going on, it doesn't sound like she was symptomatic on the deck of the boat.

Her buddy didn't go back down, no surprise there. She rushed to get down using poor judgment, lost control and died.

BTW, this is another example of why I think integrated weights should be avoided. A rubber freediving belt and hard weight are hard to argue against, IMO. A simple bent pin sealed her fate.

Edit to add: Setting the bent pin weight release aside, she should have been able to doff her entire rig in an instant and made a free ascent to the surface.
 
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I would only blow through a SS in an emergency, be it mine, or aiding another diver. But once on the surface, I would not descend again and rather take a trip to the chamber if required. Way too many divers have gone missing from doing just that....heading back down.
 
Can somebody explain to a newbie like me the advantages of going back to water to complete the safety stop??? To my understanding once the diver is out of the water most if not all of the probable damage (eg bubbles) has already been done and once done reversing it needs much more time than 3 minutes...
 
To my understanding once the diver is out of the water most if not all of the probable damage (eg bubbles) has already been done
It is nowhere near that fast.
 
It is nowhere near that fast.
Yep, it can actually be days later!
 
Can somebody explain to a newbie like me the advantages of going back to water to complete the safety stop??? To my understanding once the diver is out of the water most if not all of the probable damage (eg bubbles) has already been done and once done reversing it needs much more time than 3 minutes...
All I have ever read is that you never go back down--whether missing a SS or even a mandatory decompression stop. That is, for most rec. divers in most situations. I believe Navy divers (and others) can do this safely, as they have the knowledge and equipment to do the procedure.
 
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