Shannon Lewis - The True Story

[Shasta_man]

It's the same problem with many things and it is very difficult to awaken people's concern unless they encounter it themselves: people don't realize it (diving with a medical problem) is so dangerous because they never see something bad happen until it happens to them but then it's too late to learn from it. We all need to remember this because it's much easier to be complacent.

 

[amaze]

I remember that day very well also. While I was not on the dive and I do not know what transpired between Jim and Shannon earlier in the day I was sitting with Shannon underneath an awning that Jack and Jackie Gregory had installed by their truck/trailer. I had done a back of the cave dive earlier in the day and Shannon had come to Ginnie along with Jack and Jackie and she was hanging out with them. It was a crowded day and we were parked in the tree area between the rest room shower building and the main parking area at Devils. Shannon and I had been chatting for about a half hour and she mentioned that she wanted to do a dive and I offered to dive with her. I normally do only one dive but was willing to go again especially because she was intro and only wanting to do a simple swim dive. We were discussing the potential dive when Jim and his student arrived (back from lunch as in his recollection). A conversation ensued and he verbally offered Shannon the opportunity to tag along with him and his student instead of diving with me and she accepted and I acquiesced. I had no idea any other plans had been discussed earlier. She mentioned that she did not have a computer and I offered her my spare nitek3 but she declined. They left for their dive and I stayed parked in the area and relaxing…when the emergency vehicle(s) arrived I went to the deck and there was Shannon lying on the deck receiving CPR. Jack Gregory was sitting on the bench at the deck, doubles on, with his head in his hands. He had just exited the water (independent of Shannon’s rescue) and I asked him where Jim was and he said he did not know. I assumed something had gone wrong on the dive and rushed to gear up to find Jim and as I was heading for the water with another diver Jim was walking toward his truck with his gear on and I told him about Shannon and that I was geared up to go look for him… Jim was being a nice guy that day and as is often said, no good deed goes unpunished, and I often wonder what would have transpired had I just gone on the dive with Shannon. As a side note just a few months ago Jack Gregory was lying on that same deck after being recovered from the Sweet Surprise tunnel. Two images that I find have been the most difficult for me to deal with in a long life that has included a tour in Vietnam as a forward air controller (US Army Bird Dogs) in the tri-border area. Bill Huth


 

[The Chairman]

Thanks for those insights Bill. Some things you just can't unsee even though you really want to.

Death brings out a wide range of emotions. Anger and a desire for retribution are two common albeit often errant forms of those emotions. Reading accounts such as yours, really puts the incident into perspective for us. It's one thing to read Jim's account, and even though I believe him, there's always that niggling question: is he covering anything up? Then, someone like you gives an account which not only agrees with him, but puts a personal perspective on it. I know Jack was one of the divers that openly accused Jim of killing Shannon. It's almost ironic that Jack died in the presence of his buddy. There was apparently nothing that could be done for him and he would have been just as dead at depth with his buddy or sitting alone on the deco log like Shannon.

I guess what I'm getting at, is that it's time for the cave community to allow this wound to heal. No amount of animosity, second guessing or finger pointing is going to bring Shannon back. She chose to dive while sick and it killed her in the end. She only has herself to blame for that. I'm certainly not going to hold Jim responsible for her poor decisions. If you're still angry at Jim, I would want you to think about why that is. What about this incident is really setting you off? The facts all show that Jim didn't contribute to her demise, so why not let it go? You're not doing anyone any good by perpetuating the slander. No, not even yourself. You're definitely not going bring Shannon back.

 

[bullfroger]

With a buddy or solo?

both i have went up without my buddy(S) and they have went up with out me

 

[fsardone]

I don't want or need some one to dive with me who is unwilling to state something is a bad idea, they aren't feeling it, or the plan is beyond their comfort/skill level.

If you are diving with people that you are too afraid to tell them you are uncomfortable with a dive plan or that something during the dive has made you not want to be there then you either need to suck it up, find different people to dive with, or come to the realization that you just may have no business making technical level dives. [emoji2]

That is actually the most important point concerning this dive (not the whole story with involves legal issues, truth and lies and liabilities).
Let me tell a story about a tech dive which is very related to this incident.

We planned a dive of 20 minutes to 60 meters (which is just shy of 200' for those non metric inclined) on the Loredan wreck (in gulf of Cagliari sand is at 62 meters top of the wreck at about 55). We had TMX 18/45 as back gas EAN50 and Oxy as deco gasses).
While descending @20meters/min my buddy tells me he has equalisations issues: nothing new - fast descends aren't his bread and butter so we stop he clears we continue. We get on to of the wreck vis is about unlimited (30 meters about 100') so we get a bit of space between us (we are both solo cert and happy with solo diving). But we are a team so we keep looking to each other and I notice he has bad trim. I rejoin him and ask him if he has problems. He let me understand he cannot find the horizontal.

Big alarm bell goes off, we are 10 minutes into the dive, we have racked up substantial deco obligation and my buddy cannot orient himself. I thumb the dive and we ascend together to 24 meters ready to switch EAN 50, I pull out my wet note we exchange a few ideas recalculate our deco schedule and decide to stay on EAN50 all the way to surface to avoid additional risk with Oxy in case he cannot hold the 6 meters stop.

He had suffered alternobaric vertigo and the he was diagnosed with an issue in the middle ear (polyps) and a possible labirynthitis he took about one year and half to fully recover.

Bottom line he dove with a medical issue he was not aware of, but when it was manifest he had an issue he came forward and clearly indicated he had a problem. If he just had thumbed the dive and told me it was ok to be left alone, I most probably would have kept my dive plan and kept exploring the wreck.

Instead he had an issue and we carried out the abort as team. Things is, we are habitual buddies and we know each other, we recognise style and attitude, we also brief extensively. Instabuddies need to talk way more and be truthful with their team/mates in order to receive their support (or even to le them decide to allow to be part of the newly created team).

At the end we (as individual or team) cannot do proper risk management if the risks are not acknowledged first. Ignore a medical psychological, stress, alcohol, emotional issue does not do any good to the diver or his team.

My 2 c as certified solo tech diver and n00b cave diver.

Fabio

p.s. Loredan is a great wreck and I went back several time (albeit with different team) after that dive:
LoredanSL - Video Dailymotion the one showing the computer is me

 

[USFpsychDiver]

Reasonable people can disagree. I don't know Jim although I've spoken to him a couple of times (he wouldn't know who I am because we didn't introduce ourselves), once on the phone when I was interviewing cave instructors for full cave (I went with someone else but not because I didn't like Jim; it was scheduling) and once early morning at Ginnie when I was getting in the water and he was coming out after a solo rebreather dive. Seems like a nice guy with a solid reputation, and I would have no problem training or diving with him (would be honored, in fact). However, that doesn't mean that anyone who disagrees on any given decision is necessarily a bad person -- someone else may have a deeply held, honest difference of opinion (on board or behind the back those differences can become vitriolic much more readily than face-to-face).

Not all lawsuits are frivolous -- many (most?) are, but some are to discourage bad/unsafe/negligent behavior by making it too costly, and some are to find out what actually happened by bringing forward the conflicting opinions. I have a daughter who dives, and if I was a non-diving parent of a child who died sitting on a log 20' from the surface while her former instructor apparently swam off I might want to vigorously try to find some other truth than the one offered by that instructor and his apparent friends. This doesn't make anyone 'bad', just lots of hurt and confused people trying to come to grips with a tragedy, and sometimes there's conflict involved in that process.

I'll be diving Ginnie in the next week or two. I'll probably diving with a buddy. We both dive Ginnie solo but like to dive it together too. Our dive plan in the past and likely on the upcoming dive will include the option of not turing the dive at the same time but separating in the cave with one diver leaving and the other continuing on. This may be well back in the cave. We do this with communication, and would not do it if one diver was in any distress and if you don't believe in solo diving fine, but this has been part of our dive plan and we're fine with it.

 

[The Chairman]

Reasonable people can disagree.

Of course they can, and this forum exists without incessant flame wars because of it. Reasonable people can also regurgitate inaccuracies and lies because they trust the source they got them from. Those same reasonable people should be able to weigh the opposing view points with the supporting arguments and evidences and come to an approximation of the real truth.

At what point do we stop viewing a source or even view point as being reasonable then? How much evidence needs to be presented on just one side that makes holding to any other version seem unreasonable? Our juris prudence demands that we consider everyone innocent unless presented with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. This appears to be the opposite of that. I see people holding Jim accountable due to an unreasonable doubt of his innocence. That's beyond unreasonable and into the absurd. You have to question the motives for such an unreasonable stance and none of the possibilities are very pretty.

I am friends with most of the cave diving community. I even had one person who contended here on SB that I was not his friend, give me a hug at Peacock yesterday. I want the best for everyone in the diving community and all of it's subsets. Yes, even for those who don't like me. That being said, I don't allow friendships to determine what I consider to be the truth. I refuse to take anyone's version of the truth at face value. It was my idea that Jim publish this story. Not that Jim didn't have that very same idea many times before, but after hearing it over and over from every other source other than Jim, his recounting of it to me, made me sad over the bitterness and friends lost due to this incident. It came up again in the Cave etiquette thread and it just seemed to me that Jim should just tell everyone his side of the story and let the chips fall where they may.

Some of this has been a real eye opener, and I thank Bill Huth for that. It's also come to light in PMs with another concerned party that Shannon's log book shows that she solo dove in Ginnie Springs on a number of occasions as many people do. Mind you, I'll be thinking of that as I head over to Ginnie in a bit to suss out some equipment and do a dive or two. I felt kind of rusty on my dive in Peacock yesterday and I'll be diving with friends tomorrow, so I might as well get some practice in while I'm here. My second rule of diving is that you can call a dive at any time, for any reason with no questions asked and no repercussions. You'll earn my respect by calling a dive rather than pushing yourself to do one. Discretion is it's own reward: it doesn't need valor to validate it. Honor your limits by diving within them. Honor your life by not risking it unnecessarily.

 

[kwinter]

I guess what I'm getting at, is that it's time for the cave community to allow this wound to heal. No amount of animosity, second guessing or finger pointing is going to bring Shannon back. She chose to dive while sick and it killed her in the end. She only has herself to blame for that. I'm certainly not going to hold Jim responsible for her poor decisions. If you're still angry at Jim, I would want you to think about why that is. What about this incident is really setting you off? The facts all show that Jim didn't contribute to her demise, so why not let it go? You're not doing anyone any good by perpetuating the slander. No, not even yourself. You're definitely not going bring Shannon back.

Yes and no, Doc. If you look at the whole picture, no one has ever tried to hold Jim responsible for Shannon's actions or poor decisions. It's what came after that part that counts for Jim. If a diver makes a poor decision to start a dive with 200 psi in a tank and then runs OOG underwater and approaches you, is it reasonable to refuse to donate gas because of that person's stupidity? Of course not. So the questions that were aimed at Jim should have been strictly limited to whether his actions in seeing Shannon get to the log and then depart to continue his dive were reasonable. Based on the information I have read from all sources, the answer is yes. She was not his student at the time, so he really had no strict duty of care. And I don't even see any ethical obligation to see someone all the way to the surface who has signaled that she is ok. If she was still in distress and indicated as such, I am sure Jim would have attended to her.

The issue of whether she should have made the dive is a completely separate issue from any defense of Jim's actions. I can't really see that I would have done anything differently, even in retrospect, except maybe accompany her part way up to the log and get a final ok from her because I'm not as good at wedging myself out of the flow. But that would not have changed the outcome at all. I just think we should keep the issues separate.

 

[The Chairman]

Yes and no, Doc. If you look at the whole picture, no one has ever tried to hold Jim responsible for Shannon's actions or poor decisions.

Not so much here on SB, but that's not the 'whole picture', is it? There have been quite a few attempts on other forums to impugn his reputation. We even had such a snide remark about this in the Cave Etiquette thread that was reported and then deleted. I had two people come up to me at Peacock yesterday and told me they thought I was wrong to believe Jim's version of this. I'm not sure either had read this thread, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Make no doubt about, there are a few who have swallowed the bitter pill in regards to Shannon's death and Jim's role in it. They are doing their best to assassinate Jim's character and I hope that this thread will ameliorate their limited success completely.

The issue of whether she should have made the dive is a completely separate issue from any defense of Jim's action.

Not completely. If she had not made the dive, she would probably still be alive, Jim's actions would never have been scrutinized and we wouldn't be having this conversation. People want to know the cause of death, the major vectors that precipitated this outcome. It's been my experience that incredibly few medical emergencies that happen under water are survivable even with a buddy present. No one knows when their time to die is going to be... but why make choices that might bring it about prematurely? That's the biggest lesson for me that comes from this tragedy. And yes, I've dove when I've been sick before. I feel an obligation to my clients here in the Keys, but you can be sure I am rethinking that. I can't take care of them, which they've paid me to do, if I can't take care of myself. I've been lucky, but I'm not going to rely on luck in that regard any longer.

 

[MG11]

This reads like so many accident reports in general aviation, a person makes a bad decision either about their well being or experience level/abilities and it leads to them paying the ultimate price.

The similarities are eerily familiar.

Mike