Scuba fatalities - Los Angeles County - 1994-2007

[made for it]

To Dr Ken Kurtis,
As a non-American and have never visited your coast, I'm just wondering how much is the environment factor actually causing these incidents? We see all these stat's but people forget that the dive environment plays a MAJOR role in diving considerations/factors. I believe this can be an excellent topic for this forum + any dive safety agency’s to follow up with.

So here's my 2 pennies worth
I work in a tropical environment and have completely different % for injuries/fatalities to you and allot of other recorded statements. The dive enviroment were i work= 0 -4 knots current, 10-35m vis, temp range 26-31 degrees through out the year. The area i work i.e:- last year has over 40 dive schools within a 30 km area, rec diving= average 2-3 dives a day(staff are expected to do a max- 5 dives a day), min depth 5- max > 40m, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. rec dive cert's issued < 2mil, but only 1 dive related fatality. This area has never exceeded 2 dive deaths a year within this area since record's started in 1987. DCI patients treated in a chamber has averaged over the past 5yrs-= 33. Tec diving max fatalities in a 10 yr period = >6, depth >76m, Heliox & trimox mix's, 2 dives max a day.
So 2mil certs- 1 cert= average 5 recorded dives (i.e. PADI- OW,ADV, RESCUE) not incl. DM/Inst students, + there&#8217;s the Fun divers and staff who escort divers & the inst teaching the course.
Yes this might sounds like I'm in the ideal environment, but there&#8217;s so many factors to consider when producing facts.
What i would like to see from i.e UHMS/DAN/BSAC etc; is the amount of dives per incident ratio to environment conditions (we see states for what wet suit to wear in certain temp range). Some organizations state a 11% of divers will ensure a dive DCI episode at least once through out the "dive life". But this is such a big LABEL to stamp on the diver industry as a whole.

made for it,

 

[Ken Kurtis]

In what percentage of the fatalities was a blood carboxyhemoglobin level done?

As promised, here's your answer. Craig is Chief at the Coroner's Department and the guy I work for as a Forensic Consultant. (And to anticipate the follow-up question, since the Coroner generally receives the body within hours of the accident, decomposition is almost never an issue.) Craig says:

It is part of our SCUBA autopsy protocol. It would be routine except where the body is showing signs of decomposition.

Craig R. Harvey, F-ABMDI
Chief Coroner Investigator & Chief of Operations
Department of Coroner
County of Los Angeles

 

[Makin Raider]

Ken,
What defines the LA Counties jurisdiction? What about casualties at outer islands or at the banks? Do they work with other Coroners for Regional Statistics?

Thanks for your posts. They're very educational.

Mark

 

[Cacia]

Buddy Problems: 10%

I wonder if they can identify how many are saved by buddies, probably not.

 

[bubba105]

I think the only reasonable measure for the amount of dives done would be through tank fills, through shops, boat ops & resorts. The problem with shops is they MAY not be declaring many of their fills on their taxes :11: so the number would be off by quite a bit from that shop. Also, if you got a fill & dove elsewhere.

Great stats, thanks

 

[Kevrumbo]

Buddy Problems: 10%

I wonder if they can identify how many are saved by buddies, probably not.

Good question Cath: how many are saved via the Unconscious/Toxic Diver Rescue Technique at Depth as recently taught by GUE, or by the Buddy inflating the victim's BC/wing and just shooting 'em up to the surface. . .

 

[Ken Kurtis]

What defines the LA Counties jurisdiction? What about casualties at outer islands or at the banks?

You've actually brought up a very interesting question.

Jurisdiction is based on where the person is when they're declared dead. It would seem pretty straightforward . . . unless you're on a boat. Then the jurisdiction is based on the next port of call of the vessel.

We had a case recenly where the diver was at Santa Barbara Island (not sure if that's Ventura or Santa Barbara County but it's not L.A. County) and was declared dead on the boat by a physician on board. The boat was then directed to head to the Catalina Chamber. Since that became their next port of call, it became an L.A. County case. Had they gone in to Ventura Harbor, it would have been a Ventura case.

The other thing deals with other chambers closing. With the closure of the Pleasant Valley Chamber in Thousand Oaks (Ventura County) some years ago, cases from the Northern Channel Islands that would have gone there are now frequently sent to the Catalina Chamber. So now it becomes L.A. County even though the accident didn't take place there.

Do they work with other Coroners for Regional Statistics?

We're trying to. One of the (many) projects that Lt. John Kades is creating for himself is to do some sort of outreach to other Coroners to see what they do in similar cases. We might learn something from them and we feel we've got a pretty good system going here so maybe we can show them something as well. In addition, it'd be nice to get a better handle on the cumulative statistics from a wider geographical area.

Thanks for your posts. They're very educational.

My pleasure. Nice to know they're being well-received.

Oh yeah, and just to clear one thing up from a previous post from "made for It." I'm not a dctor, but I have played one on TV. (Really and truly. And ironically, it was as a Coroner. This was back in the days when I was doing occassion roles on Days of Our Lives.)

 

[drbill]

"Days of Our Lives," Ken? A true soap star! Of course I regularly play one on TV myself... but the only patients I can help are fishies and crabs and the like, although I did diagnose Mo2vation's plantar fasciatis.