Rob Davie's accident. (aka. BigJetDiver)

[MikeFerrara]

All I have are questions.

I thought I read that he was seen bailing out to OC. He got to the surface and he was near neutral? weighting ok? Did he surface too fast...AGE? As other have mentioned maybe some other medical problem? That would be a heck of a coincidence though to have a hear attack at the same moment as a rebreather failure. Aspirated water due to the rebreather failure?

I'm in no position to assign blame to the buddy or any one else but I have questions there too. Was he there? If not, could he have changed the outcome? We can't say based on what we know. I also understand that we don't all dive the same way. Without going back through all the accidents I've ever known about, it seems to me that divers heading back alone and not making it seems to be a recurring theme in diving accidents. Certainly buddy seperations of some kind are. I think I understand the point Kim was making with the link he provided in the opening post...that it's not always a black and white decission? Maybe it should be but in this case we still don't know if it would have made any difference.

Those are just all questions. What I know, or think I know, is that when we see uneducated or unskilled divers die it's often a no-brainer to see at least some of the skill issues that may have been likely causes. Rob was niether uneducated nor unskilled (from the information that I have) so what got him could, in theory, get any one of us.

 

[H2Andy]

That would be a heck of a coincidence though to have a hear attack at the same moment as a rebreather failure.

not necessarily. perhaps it took some effort to swim the unit up to the surface,
and some effort to stay at the surface, which might have triggered a heart-attack,
combined with perhaps the stress of the moment.

it's just speculation on my part, though, i admit

one thing against my theory is that rob was an airline pilot, and had to
have a physical every year. he would not have been allowed to fly with
a heart problem.

 

[riguerin]

Good questions, Mike.

Regarding the buddy separation ... from the original post by the wife as well as drmike, it sounds like Bob had an equipment failure very early in the dive that caused him to have to bail and ascend immediately. There may have not been time to signal to get buddies attention and communicate problem.

 

[Missdirected]

not necessarily. perhaps it took some effort to swim the unit up to the surface,
and some effort to stay at the surface, which might have triggered a heart-attack,
combined with perhaps the stress of the moment.

it's just speculation on my part, though, i admit

It is fairly common in highly stressful situations for a heart-attack to occur.

I wonder what kind of foreign object? That like other things seems "overlooked".

Though I do find it difficult to reconcile the state of assembly of the mouthpiece area with the Rob I knew.

This year a friend lost his life on a motorcycle. Six months to the day, his father did an anniversary ride, with some of his sons friends. He had mentioned, in passing, his handle bars were acting strange. He then made the decision they were okay and drove home. During his ride home the handle bars essentially came apart. He crashed and lost his life. I found that difficult to believe considering safety was a priority to him but it was found to be the case. Sometimes we just never know why.

 

[PerroneFord]

There may have not been time to signal to get buddies attention and communicate problem.

One thing was made VERY clear to me by my instructor. Watch rebreather divers like a HAWK on descent and ascent, if you are buddied with them. I was never more than 5ft from him when he was on ascent and descent on his rebreather.

 

[ScubaTexan]

Sometimes we just never know why.

That's the bottom line.

 

[DandyDon]

Not picking on you or your posts in particular - just a thought....

one thing against my theory is that rob was an airline pilot, and had to
have a physical every year. he would not have been allowed to fly with
a heart problem.

Yes, I'm sure his airline checked him closely, but how often do heart attacks happen to people who recently passed an Ekg? Are those really predictable now? Didn't used to be, but I could be behind...?

Again, no reason to say heart attack, but a reasonable speculation, still.

 

[MikeFerrara]

One thing was made VERY clear to me by my instructor. Watch rebreather divers like a HAWK on descent and ascent, if you are buddied with them. I was never more than 5ft from him when he was on ascent and descent on his rebreather.

Ascents and descents are two prime times for things to go wrong for all divers. That's something else that I think we see over and over in dive accidents.

 

[Kim]

Ascents and descents are two prime times for things to go wrong for all divers. That's something else that I think we see over and over in dive accidents.

Certainly in OC diving it's also a time when buddy teams can be less than stellar. So often it seems to be a case of 'see you on the bottom'!


edit: I hasten to add that I'm not suggesting that in this situation.

 

[PerroneFord]

Ascents and descents are two prime times for things to go wrong for all divers. That's something else that I think we see over and over in dive accidents.

Agreed. On ascent, the RB's oxygen addition may not keep up with demand those increasing the risk of the diver going hypoxic. On descent, the problem is the opposite with the diluent perhaps not keeping up, allowing pp02 to rise too high. OC divers are generally not susceptible to these issues unless their gas mix is wrong.

I have 2 dives tomorrow with a normal RB diver. I am hoping he brings his OC in this instance to be honest.