Multiple deaths diving off NC coast May 10, 2020?

[Marie13]

Me. I'm with Marie13 on this one. My dentist knows about my gag reflex and tries very hard not to gag me.

Have you ever had to get an impression made for something? I did about 10 years ago. Small jaw so they had to use a child-sized tray. Then they fill it with the squishy medium and you sit in the dentist’s chair holding the thing, trying desperately not to gag. I actually threw up. Thing had to be redone. I managed not to throw up on the second time around.

Yuck.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

This misses the point.

Bring bigger tanks for 105ft dives. Your average consumption is not going to be average in an emergency and your buddy's could be even higher. 4 ATAs exacerbates even minor consumption rate increases compared to shallower dives. There is no downside to going up a few tank sizes and having 20cf more leftover, they are still singles even.

I just totally spooked myself reading this thread. I very frequently check my air and depth and come up with plenty of air to share. I usually use an al63 when warm water diving. Now that seems super scary when I add the depth. From now on I'll deal with the AL80 on the days where there is a deep dive planned. What a devastating loss to their family and community.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Have you ever had to get an impression made for something? I did about 10 years ago. Small jaw so they had to use a child-sized tray. Then they fill it with the squishy medium and you sit in the dentist’s chair holding the thing, trying desperately not to gag. I actually threw up. Thing had to be redone. I managed not to throw up on the second time around.

Yuck.

I had a bridge a few years ago. The mold nearly killed me.
I've also had back molars pulled. I had to get nitrous for that.

 

[tridacna]

My spouse had (she has since quit diving) a crazy strong gag reflex similar to @Marie13 and has a small jaw

She "drowned" in her tech class (or GUE-F I forget which it was) when her buddy tried to donate a seacure mouthpiece with moulded teeth and long bitewings. She had to go to her own necklace while coughing and recovering from gaging. People do violently reject mouthpieces that don't fit without any real opportunity to think of the consequences like we do from the comfort of our keyboards. And its not a choice you get to make twice.

Yes. Time to leave your keyboard. There is a world of difference between rejecting a mouthpiece in a training situation knowing you have an option on a necklace and a real life OOA. I believe that a diver would suck joyfully on a turd encrusted firehose if they had no air and thought that it may provide a breath.

 

[uncfnp]

I have had a Seacure mouthpiece on my primary regulator for a very long time. I have always had a primary donate system, first it was an Air 2 with a short hose primary and now it is a necklaced short hose second and a 40 inch hose primary. Are there people who should/could not be my buddy due the the gagging?

My primary donate is a Seacure as well. I also considered this issue when I switched configurations but since I almost never have an instabuddy I decided to keep the Seacure. I dive the Seacure for me. Without it I would be in misery during a week+ of diving. For the one in a million chance that I am mugged by a stranger, will I guess my dive knife would work (to cut off the bitewings )

 

[rjack321]

Yes. Time to leave your keyboard. There is a world of difference between rejecting a mouthpiece in a training situation knowing you have an option on a necklace and a real life OOA. I believe that a diver would suck joyfully on a turd encrusted firehose if they had no air and thought that it may provide a breath.

Sighs you can't possibly see that not everyone reacts like you <think> you will.
This poor woman is a great example of a "simple" upside down donation leading to a fatality.

 

[uncfnp]

Sighs you can't possibly see that not everyone reacts like you <think> you will.
This poor woman is a great example of a "simple" upside down donation leading to a fatality.

What on earth does that have to do with mouthpieces? And she did not die because of an upside down regulator. She died from a series of mistakes that includes incorrect orientation of a donated regulator.

And I apologize if this was covered up thread but unless the handoff was fumbled the primary donate procedure would seem to be the least likely to end up with an upside down regulator. The donated primary is handed to the OOA diver in the correct orientation. The receiving diver would have to flip it around to use it incorrectly. (Of course I am speaking in general terms and not specific to this event)

 

[rjack321]

What on earth does that have to do with mouthpieces? And she did not die because of an upside down regulator. She died from a series of mistakes that includes incorrect orientation of a donated regulator.

And I apologize if this was covered up thread but unless the handoff was fumbled the primary donate procedure would seem to be the least likely to end up with an upside down regulator. The donated primary is handed to the OOA diver in the correct orientation. The receiving diver would have to flip it around to use it incorrectly. (Of course I am speaking in general terms and not specific to this event)

its was donated upside down according to the helmet gopro of the husband reviewed by the medical examiner
which caused her to gag and/or spit it out (breathing wet)
then she drowned in front of him

So "things that cause people to gag" like moulded mouthpieces in the wrong mouth are totally relevant here. If you go with primary donate, then as a buddy you have an obligation to not gag your buddy. Test your custom mouthpiece in their mouth if you can or use a standard mouthpiece on your primary reg.

 

[jejton]

Another thing to consider is that if the woman sucked in water thinking she was getting air, she may have aspirated (the information from the ME report provided does not indicate whether there was evidence of this, so that may be because they didn't look or because they did and it wasn't there). Aspiration of seawater can quickly cause inflammation and severe hypoxia even if volume aspirated was low. Even if she didnt aspirate below the cords, water hitting her larynx can cause severe laryngospasm leading, again, to hypoxia and death quickly. This could have accelerated the death of the woman even if she had plenty of air left (let alone if she was near or at OOA).

 

[stuartv]

Not gagging your dive buddy is a worthy thought.

But, let's not lose sight of other important facts. She ran out of air. Then, apparently, she basically did not use any of her husband's air, because she gagged, vomited, etc., as soon as she tried to use her husband's air. Then, her husband ran out of air himself, on the way to the surface (while not even sharing with anyone else). So, she ran out and he was critically low at the same time (as you might expect of a compatible dive buddy - to both get low at about the same time).

The gagging sounds like a contributing factor that is of much lower importance, overall, than the fact that they were both out or critically low on gas. It is very sad. But, could easily have had the same outcome, even if she'd received the reg in right-side up orientation.

So, DON'T RUN OUT OF AIR. Then you won't have to worry about gagging on your buddy's mouthpiece.