One dead, one injured - Pensacola Beach, Florida

[DogDiver]

I’ve personally seen body’s brought up from depth. With no circulating blood volume and tissues and organs saturated with gas either nitrogen or any other gas. When you bring the body to the surface. Every gas micro bubble expands. Hence your tissues and organs and brain turn to mush. I’ve seen the not so pretty dead diver on the surface spewing tissue and organ in a bloody foam 6 foot column. Nothing there to autopsy but a bucket of oatmeal.

 

[Kublai]

What kind of depth are we talking about, 12 nm SW of Pensacola Beach?

 

[MaxE]

What kind of depth are we talking about, 12 nm SW of Pensacola Beach?

That should be around 100ft

 

[letterboy]

I’ve personally seen body’s brought up from depth. With no circulating blood volume and tissues and organs saturated with gas either nitrogen or any other gas. When you bring the body to the surface. Every gas micro bubble expands. Hence your tissues and organs and brain turn to mush. I’ve seen the not so pretty dead diver on the surface spewing tissue and organ in a bloody foam 6 foot column. Nothing there to autopsy but a bucket of oatmeal.

Welp, I'm never eating oatmeal with strawberries in it ever again.

 

[Compressor]

People often quickly conclude that a death was cardiac in nature, which then shuts down any discussion of diving issues. Often people with vested interests in making diving look safe will push that narrative as well.

There are two comments on another article about this tragedy, one from the divers daughter who just said he was an experienced diver and one from a friend who said it was a "heart attack". This is an inexact term used for a sudden cardiac event (fatal or non-fatal). There are a number of things that can fall under that category, but two more common conditions are either (1) the death of a significant amount of cardiac muscle due to blockage of the coronary arteries (which would probably be seen on autopsy), or (2) a fatal heart rhythm abnormality (which wouldn't).

The epiglottis doesn't close the airway, the vocal cords do. If you ascend while holding your breath (closing your vocal cords), then you could have barotrauma in the lungs due to the inability of trapped gas to escape. If a diver dies at depth and then ascends, the vocal cords would not be closed and gas would likely escape. In neither case would the organs be damaged to the point that autopsy would not be possible. But of course, in many cases the ME will conclude death from drowning even if there was another cause of that, if that cause couldn't be determined.

Thank you. Well said.

 

[kensuf]

I’ve personally seen body’s brought up from depth. With no circulating blood volume and tissues and organs saturated with gas either nitrogen or any other gas. When you bring the body to the surface. Every gas micro bubble expands. Hence your tissues and organs and brain turn to mush. I’ve seen the not so pretty dead diver on the surface spewing tissue and organ in a bloody foam 6 foot column. Nothing there to autopsy but a bucket of oatmeal.

I can confirm.

 

[wedivebc]

I’ve personally seen body’s brought up from depth. With no circulating blood volume and tissues and organs saturated with gas either nitrogen or any other gas. When you bring the body to the surface. Every gas micro bubble expands. Hence your tissues and organs and brain turn to mush. I’ve seen the not so pretty dead diver on the surface spewing tissue and organ in a bloody foam 6 foot column. Nothing there to autopsy but a bucket of oatmeal.

Given that scenario I wonder if cases of IPE are underreported due to coroners being unable to determine the cause and just use the "medical event" catchall

 

[dmaziuk]

Given that scenario I wonder if cases of IPE are underreported due to coroners being unable to determine the cause and just use the "medical event" catchall

As I understand it, coroners don't report IPE in those cases because "fluid in lungs" of a drowning victim isn't exactly telling. I.e. the only cases of IPE where you're actually sure are the ones who make it to the emergency room.

 

[wedivebc]

As I understand it, coroners don't report IPE in those cases because "fluid in lungs" of a drowning victim isn't exactly telling. I.e. the only cases of IPE where you're actually sure are the ones who make it to the emergency room.

So maybe they need to look at the many "medical events" that occur in diving, and we usually assume heart attack when they could be IPE episodes. Especially in rebreather diving where certain units can cause high WOB in certain conditions which is thought to lead to IPE.

 

[dmaziuk]

Repost: Immersion Pulmonary Edema - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

Based on case studies in Europe, IPE incidence is about 1.1%. [2]When reviewing the literature, SIPE tends to occur more commonly in males in excellent physical condition without any comorbidities. It typically occurs in military or combat swimmers and triathletes, and it is associated with heavy physical exertion and possibly, increased airway resistance. SDPE, however, is seen more frequently in recreational divers, particularly middle-aged females and is commonly associated with underlying comorbidities like hypertension, ischemic heart disease and possibly transient reversible cardiomyopathies such as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.[3] Fatalities occur most commonly in females over the age of 50.

Colour me skeptical. Considering the numbers, I expect RB divers are below the error margin threshold for any statistics, but still: note the "comorbidites" part.