Recovery at Little River

[Divesherpa]

The dive they did would have had a max depth of 106 ffw.


It wasn't an o2 hit

 

[The Chairman]

Well, there could have been mitigating factors, such as medications that would make him more susceptible to an O2 hit. We just expect our bodies to adapt, and pay a dear price when they don't. My condolences to the family.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by Divesherpa
The bottles were analyzed at 32.5%

Thanks.
At Little River that rules out an oxygen hit.
Gotta wonder what did happen. Without knowing any medical history or anything, just going on percentages we're probably looking at a CVA of some sort, but only the autopsy will tell for sure. I sure hope they don't stop at the "proximate cause" - drowning - and don't investigate the cause of the convulsion/seizure/incapacitation or whatever it was that led to the drowning.
It's just so sad...
Rick

 

[TRUETEXAN]

Netdoc, you stated that certain medications can make you more susceptible to an O2 hit. What types of medications can do this and how???

 

[The Chairman]

I am not sure we know all of the CNS excitors out there, but any could factor in, especially over time. Sudafed (psuedophedrine) is the first that comes to mind... and thats right out of a NitrOx manual. We are not a patient society, we refuse to wait on anything, even our bodies to get well. We push and push until something goes wrong. When we don't understand an event, it's easy to label it an "undeserved hit". Hopefully the final autopsy will reveal what actually happened so we can keep putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

 

[Dell Motes]

Ay guys,
Be careful when ruling out 02 toxicity. You need to look at previous days exposure first, if there was any present here.
This very thing happened several years ago at Ginnie.
Several days of Nitrox caving, bang, diver convulsed several hundred feet back. It may or may not be cause of death, but you certainly cannot rule it out. If I am not mistaken, the only way this could be determined on a DOA is blood work done very quickly.
A siezure of any kind on a cave dive is a virtual death sentence, unless you are close to an exit. A seizing diver, even if he recovers initially, will be extremely hard to manage. Even then, a subsequent seizure should be expected and is likely, when dealing with 02 tox or any seizure related maladies for that matter.
Don't make the mistake of overruling tox simply because he was not above 1.4 on this dive.
Make no mistake, I am not advocating it was tox, I am saying don't rule it out.

If anyone is doing longer dives they should back off the 1.4 etc. It does not make that big of difference in deco, which you can survive. A tox you can't. I think you will see any serious exposure being done is far below 1.4 on working dives.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by Dell Motes
Make no mistake, I am not advocating it was tox, I am saying don't rule it out.

Ye're correct, of course. If this was one of a long string of dives it could indeed be an oxygen hit. And an autopsy will have to be done with an eye to ruling out anything else... Pending a difinitive finding, I may have to give some serious thought to backing off on max PO2 and accepting longer deco times, as you suggest.
Rick

 

[Divesherpa]

Thanks Dell,
You seem to be the voice of reason in cave diving situations. Welcome to Scubaboard.