Rottnest Island fatality - Western Australia

[DandyDon]

Man dies in hospital after Rottnest dive tragedy | Perth Now

A MAN has died overnight in the hyperbaric chamber at Fremantle Hospital after being admitted with bends after a diving mishap at Rottnest Island yesterday. The man was one of three people injured after separate diving incidents at Rottnest Island yesterday.
The 39-year-old man had been scuba diving from a boat and was taken to a nearby jetty and treated before being flown by the RAC rescue helicopter to Fremantle Hospital.

He died overnight after unsuccessful treatment in the hospital's “decompression chamber”.
The two men and three women came into difficulty whilst diving near the island between 9.30am yesterday morning and 12.40pm.

At around 12.20pm, a 40-year-old woman came to the surface in difficulty after her dive.

She was treated on the island at a nursing post and was also flown to Fremantle by the RAC chopper.



She too is receiving treatment in a decompression chamber.

And, a 66-year-old man is currently being treated at the island’s nursing post after it’s believed he came to the surface too fast after his dive.

It’s expected he too was to be flown to Perth or Fremantle for further treatment although it is believed he is in a “reasonable condition.”

 

[ianr33]

What's a "decompression chamber" ?

 

[Griffo]

It seems to have been a bit of a black weekend for Australian diving. Two deaths and two other injuries in 4 separate accidents.

 

[DandyDon]

What's a "decompression chamber" ?

Layman terms for hyperbaric chamber. Technically: Diving chamber - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It seems to have been a bit of a black weekend for Australian diving. Two deaths and two other injuries in 4 separate accidents.

That we know of. Those two accidents wouldn't have made the news media if they hadn't happened the same day & location.

 

[tamas970]

Does anyone know how deep/difficult dive sites are there?

 

[WetPup]

Does anyone know how deep/difficult dive sites are there?

I don't know where exactly on Rottnest they were diving, but in my experience the dives there aren't particularly deep or difficult.

The deepest dive I've done anywhere around the island since I moved to the area has been about 25m. And while at times there can be a bit of a surge going at some of the sites, it's nothing any experienced diver shouldn't be able to deal with. The local dive shops take students to Rottnest to do their OW certification dives most weekends, so that should give some kind of indication as to the difficulty level involved...

 

[mac.calder]

From what I have heard, re the Rotto tragedy (and this is all third hand) they were ascending from depth & he was at about 50 bar (standard tank in WA is a 232 bar steel 12.2L).

During ascent he saw "something" and went on a bit of a chase, finning hard. He ran out of air at depth, surfaced, lost consciousness & stopped breathing. He was on a private boat, however there was a dive boat from one of the shops nearby. I don't know whether he was pulled straight onto the dive boat from the water or whether the private boat gunned it for the dive boat after he lost consciousness, but the crew of the boat managed to get him breathing again and onto o2. They got him to the island and he was air lifted to the nearest chamber. Unfortunately, he didn't make it.

 

[DandyDon]

This report pretty well goes with what you heard, Mac: Crew tried to save dying diver - The West Australian

A passenger on a dive trip to Rottnest Island has described how people in another boat came begging for help for a dying diver on Sunday morning.
The crew of the dive boat managed to get the 39-year-old victim aboard and fought to save him for 30 minutes but he died in hospital that night.
Jenny Curtis said she was on a Perth Diving Academy trip when a private boat came racing towards them with two men showing the international distress signal and yelling: "Bent diver, bent diver."
She said a diver lay horizontal on the deck and the dive instructors rushed to get the injured man on to the bigger boat. "By the time he got to our boat, he was blue," Ms Curtis said. "They basically started to do resuscitation."
It is understood the Hillarys man had been diving at a depth of 16m near Parker Point when his diving companions noticed he was low on air.
They ascended to the surface but the victim swam off after a fish. His companions spotted him on the surface with pink froth coming out of his mouth, suggesting he suffered from a condition known as arterial gas embolism, when divers do not breathe out as they ascend.
Ms Curtis said she was amazed to watch the Perth Diving Academy crew in action.
"They did everything in their power to save that guy's life," she said. "It was textbook."
The man was taken to the main jetty, airlifted to the mainland by the RAC rescue helicopter and treated in the recompression chamber at Fremantle Hospital but died about 9pm.
The man's death was one of three diving incidents at Rottnest on Sunday as near-perfect diving conditions saw many people in the water.
A 40-year-old woman, believed to be diving with a charter service at Geordie Bay, came to the surface in difficulty about noon and was treated in the recompression chamber.
A 66-year-old man diving at Roe Reef suffered chest pains and was treated at the Rottnest Island nursing post and airlifted off the island by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Both were in a stable condition in hospital yesterday.