Rebreather Diver dies in Pool in Oregon

[CCRDolphinDiver]

Gut reactions aside, Harvey died because he made a mistake, actually several mistakes, one he ran out of gas, two he had the Oxygauge turned off, three, he wasnt monitoring either or he would have noticed and fixed the problem. There was no problem with CO2 or it would have showed up in the coroners report. what did show up is the oxygauge was off and the cylinder was empty. He may have initially passed out with the wrong mix for a shallow pool, but the cylinder was empty and could not be tested for content. Any way you look at it, it was a diver failure and possibly a training failure, but I was not there for the training, I do know the dive shop manager and was told of the coroners report from a reliable source. Complacency Kills. I have had a personal experience with hypoxia in a controlled enviroment and also know what hypercapnia feels like. Hypoxia is the creeping silent killer with no warnings, hypercapnia will let you know something is wrong, but you may not be able to do anything about it.

 

[dt64852]

I am just a beginning diver here, but the discussion here about monitoring gases is an interesting one. It sounds from the discussion that low O2 levels are the biggest risk with rebreathers because the diver may just go to sleep. The engineers in the forum are saying that reliable gas measurements are not easy.

There is a monitor called a pulse oximeter used in the medical field that report O2 saturation in the blood itself. It uses a colorimeter reading of the haemoglobin in the blood. The idea is that oxygenated blood is red while un-oxygenated blood is blue, so by reading the relative colors in the blood, a percent of oxygenation is found. These monitors commonly are clipped to the finger to a person on oxygen in a hospital and can read right through the skin.

Pulse oximeters currently sell starting at about $200.

Could a device like this be included in a dive mask, press against the cheek, and give a reading of O2 saturation?

 

[caveseeker7]

I for one am more worried about Hypercapnia (CO2 poisening), as it can be completely debilitating very quickly and there is no reliable monitor available yet.

Technology to monitor pO2 is easily available, it's standard on all CCRs (usually in form of tripple redundant O2 sensors and redundant displays). On SCRs it's only optional, a decision I personally don't agree with.

However, with any monitor (or setpoint controlling device) it has to be
- installed
- operable
- switched on (if powered) and
- monitored

That includes any pulse oximeters or CO2 monitors yet to come.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Gut reactions aside, Harvey died because he made a mistake, actually several mistakes, one he ran out of gas, two he had the Oxygauge turned off, three, he wasnt monitoring either or he would have noticed and fixed the problem. There was no problem with CO2 or it would have showed up in the coroners report. what did show up is the oxygauge was off and the cylinder was empty. He may have initially passed out with the wrong mix for a shallow pool, but the cylinder was empty and could not be tested for content. Any way you look at it, it was a diver failure and possibly a training failure, but I was not there for the training, I do know the dive shop manager and was told of the coroners report from a reliable source. Complacency Kills. I have had a personal experience with hypoxia in a controlled enviroment and also know what hypercapnia feels like. Hypoxia is the creeping silent killer with no warnings, hypercapnia will let you know something is wrong, but you may not be able to do anything about it.

I take it then that the coroners results have been published? :06:

 

[diverdenise]

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html#DSM
Perhaps this will give some insight to another side.

 

[sharksdelight]

Whenever I get too cocky something happens to give me back my dose of humility. In this case, humble pie was fatal. Don't even know if he did anything wrong but it serves as a lesson to always be aware and then some. What a shame tho
Steve