Rob Davie's accident. (aka. BigJetDiver)

[Cacia]

6. what happened between the time he was seen swimming to the boat
and the time he was found on the surface?

I wonder if this time period was observed by someone. A sudden, silent "uneventful" lapse in consciousness, considering all that has been explained could point to a fatal arrythmia. (also, I seem to remember his experienced rescuers found no pulse, which would be consistent with ventricular fibrillation or asytole, in my way of thinking. Often when one dies of other causes, you would have at least a weak pulse for a few minutes....I thought.)

 

[caveseeker7]

My comments above in red.

Chris, when the crew found Rob adrift they got him out of the water asap and started emergency procedures. He was transfered to shore by speedboat as there is no airborne medevac in the Red Sea.

In regards to his dive buddy and friend, I'm reasonably sure they talked about emergency protocol. I know Rob and I did on various occasions when buddies where around during RB accidents/fatalities. Ranging from buddies staying in the water for hours finishing their deco schedules to making emergency ascents getting injured badly. Rob took full responsibility for his diving. We agreed that Rich Pyle was spot on when he wrote

***************************************************
"WHATEVER happens to you when you willingly go underwater is
COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY your own responsibility!
If you cannot accept this responsibility, stay out of the water!"
***************************************************

So to anyone here contemplating to assign blame or responsibility to his friend, it would not sit well with Rob. We discussed it at length on several occasion.

 

[cerich]

Chris, when the crew found Rob adrift they got him out of the water asap and started emergency procedures. He was transfered to shore by speedboat as there is no airborne medevac in the Red Sea.

In regards to his dive buddy and friend, I'm reasonably sure they talked about emergency protocol. I know Rob and I did on various occasions when buddies where around during RB accidents/fatalities. Ranging from buddies staying in the water for hours finishing their deco schedules to making emergency ascents getting injured badly. Rob took full responsibility for his diving. We agreed that Rich Pyle was spot on when he wrote

***************************************************
"WHATEVER happens to you when you willingly go underwater is
COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY your own responsibility!
If you cannot accept this responsibility, stay out of the water!"
***************************************************

So to anyone here contemplating to assign blame or responsibility to his friend, it would not sit well with Rob. We discussed it at length on several occasion.

Absolutely! I didn't know Rob, just read many of his postings. From those I am 100% sure that what you said above is EXACTLY how Rob felt and approached his diving. When we dive we all make risk vs. benefit trade offs, part of this is in how we approach certain things. I tried very carefully in my previous post to not put any blame on anybody because I was sure that Rob was doing the dive in the manner he wanted it done in regards to buddy/team and otherwise. That fits exactly into what Pyle wrote that you quoted above.

I'm not above having done many "more risky" than normal dives and know that things don't always go as planned so it certainly isn't my intention to blame anybody for this horrible accident.

In trying to learn from accidents (which I also believe Rob was in support of) there are times when you have to look at cause and prevention and intervention from all different angles. It wasn't that Rob (or his buddies) did anything that was "wrong" by any means, my feeling from what I read is that using different protocols there "may" have been a different outcome.

 

[roakey]

4. he was seen on the surface swimming to the boat.

In addition to considering the gas analysis unreliable, I consider the report of his “swimming toward the boat” unreliable as well. His “buddy” saw him swim toward the boat from 80 feet below. In anything but glassy conditions, I would think it would be quite easy from 80 feet below (backlit with a bright sky above) to mistake a limp, unconscious diver bobbing in the waves as “swimming”.

Roak

 

[DandyDon]

In addition to considering the gas analysis unreliable, I consider the report of his “swimming toward the boat” unreliable as well. His “buddy” saw him swim toward the boat from 80 feet below. In anything but glassy conditions, I would think it would be quite easy from 80 feet below (backlit with a bright sky above) to mistake a limp, unconscious diver bobbing in the waves as “swimming”.

Roak

I have no intent of trying to lay blame on the bud or anyone, but would like a little more info along those lines. Did bud ascend with Rob, or stay at 80 ft? I would think he was in pursuit and not that deep, but this is a guess.

 

[Kim]

I have no intent of trying to lay blame on the bud or anyone, but would like a little more info along those lines. Did bud ascend with Rob, or stay at 80 ft? I would think he was in pursuit and not that deep, but this is a guess.

I believe that his buddy stayed at 80ft and continued his own dive because he believed Rob to be OK. As caveseeker7 just explained they would (al)most certainly have had an emergency protocol worked out in advance. His buddy was a personal friend AND one of Rob's own students. It would stand to reason that he would act exactly as he had been taught by Rob.

 

[TSandM]

I'm pretty sure that it would be possible to run CKs and troponins (enzyme markers for cardiac muscle injury) on post-mortem blood. However, it takes hours after an event for these markers to turn positive, whereas a massive infarction or arrhythmia related to ischemia could result in death long before the enzymes would show anything.

 

[scubapolly]

Had he been tested for a PFO? Seems like that manifests its problems after an abnormal exertion of energy followed by rest. Willie

Isn't PFO just a contributing factor to DCS? I don't remember hearing any link between PFO and heartattack. But then again, I've spent most of the time in the brain... hearts are borring.

 

[Charlie99]

6. what happened between the time he was seen swimming to the boat and the time he was found on the surface?

IMO, this is the critical time. Particularly in view of

Buddy saw him surface and swim towards boat.
He was seen by crew just under the surface unresponsive

Perhaps "just under the surface" translates to "floating on the surface, face submerged". Even if he had a problem where the flooded unit tended to flip him face down, the report also says that he has air still left in the bailout bottle. So that should have still been survivable, unless he was incapacitated for some reason.

It's reasonably clear that a rebreather mouthpiece problem started the cascade of problems. What's not clear is what happened once he got to the surface, with air still in his bailout bottle.

 

[Cacia]

oh, yea, thanks Lynne. I forgot the time line for them to elevate.