Snowmobile salvage turns fatal

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

DandyDon

Umbraphile
ScubaBoard Supporter
Messages
54,369
Reaction score
8,481
Location
One kilometer high on the Texas Central Plains
# of dives
500 - 999
'Giving' man died while diving for snowmobile » Region » Traverse City Record-Eagle
TRAVERSE CITY — On his last Facebook post, Steven Lee "Wags" Wagner said he was going to look at a hole in the ice with a sled under it.

"Be careful people," he wrote. "2 sleds went down yesterday in different lakes."

Wagner, 46, of Traverse City donned scuba gear and dove into Duck Lake around 11 a.m. on Jan. 29 to retrieve the snowmobile. But his attempt ended tragically as he died of a suspected heart attack. Tom Marek, the snowmobile owner, and another man waited for him on the ice, said Grand Traverse County sheriff's Sgt. Chris Oosse.

"The guys who were with him said that when he came up to the surface, he was unconscious and not breathing," Oosse said.

They pulled Wagner onto the ice shelf, began CPR and called 911, Oosse said.

Green Lake Township medics continued with CPR and transported Wagner to Munson Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Oosse said.

The snowmobile went down on Jan. 26 about a mile south of the Interlochen State campground. Marek of Interlochen was on his way back from ice fishing when his sled went through the ice about 100 yards from the lake's west shoreline. He crawled to safety, Oosse said.

Wagner's mom, Kitty Braden, said her son loved the outdoors, scuba diving, four-wheeling, hunting and fishing. He was always on the go, dashing out to retrieve snowmobiles and boats from lakes and rivers, she said.

"He loved it, he absolutely loved it," Braden said.

She said he had no idea he had heart problems.

"He just dove down and came right back up," she said. "He wasn't down maybe a minute before he came back up."

Wagner was a big fan of vintage snowmobiles and a member of Vintage Sledders, said Tammy Yack, his "soul mate" who was with Wagner for more than 26 years.

"I wouldn't say he lived dangerously; he lived his life adventurously," Yack said.

Braden said her son's favorite motto was, "If everything is under control, you're not going fast enough."

Yack said Wagner was a very giving man. He would grow his hair down to his waist and give it to Locks for Love. At Deering Tree Service, where he worked, the crew liked to pool their tips to buy gifts for Toys for Tots. This past year, they donated 86 presents.

"He was just a very giving person," she said. "I saw him more than a half dozen times take his last $100 bill and give it to somebody who needed it worse than we did."

Hundreds of friends and family showed up at his memorial service held on Feb. 2, Braden said.

Yack said the Interlochen Boat Shop ran a memorial sled race in his honor last week.

"There was not a dry eye on the track," she said.

On Saturday, the Betsie River Canoes and Campground will hold a vintage, pre-1975 sled race in his memory starting at noon; the sign-up is between 8 a.m. and 10 am.

"My favorite people are people who help people," said campground owner Mark Magee, who is organizing the race. "Every time I saw Wags, he was always helping someone and he did it with a very good attitude."

Wagner is survived by an adult daughter and son, both who still live in the area.
 
I hope someone checked his tanks for CO. Carbon monoxide can precipitate a heart attack.

In the 1980s I heard of a heart attack with CO poisoning happening to a Pacific Northwest diver, and followed up. I found some scientific literature which validated that CO could precipitate heart attacks, but cannot now find those references. So I went to PubMed.gov and search. I found this citation, which validates the potential for CO to induce a heart attack.

Hum Exp Toxicol. 2013 Jan 28. [Epub ahead of print][h=1]Intracardiac thrombus formation induced by carbon monoxide poisoning.[/h]Ryoo S, Sohn C, Kim H, Kwak M, Oh B, Lim K.
[h=3]Source[/h]Department of Emergency Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

[h=3]Abstract[/h]Introduction: Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the leading causes of poisoning; it inhibits oxygen delivery, subsequently causing ischemic changes and ultimately death by multiorgan failure. Furthermore, thromboembolic episodes due to CO poisoning have been reported. However, intracardiac thrombus formation following exposure to CO has been very rarely described. Here, a case of right atrial large thrombus formation after CO poisoning is presented.Case presentation: A previously healthy 24-year-old woman was referred for CO poisoning. She has attempted suicide, and her initial mental status was drowsy with focal memory loss. Her initial CO fraction was 16%, and initial laboratory data showed creatinine kinase-myocardialbound of 90.6 ng/mL (upper limit 5 ng/mL) and troponin I of 1.899 ng/mL (upper limit 1.5 ng/mL). A transthoracic echocardiography was performed 24 h after the accident, revealing a 30 15 mm nodular echogenic mass in the right atrium. Anticoagulation with low-molecular-weight heparin was started along with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. After 7 days of heparinization, the large thrombus in right atrium had resolved.Conclusion: This report describes an intracardiac thrombus formation induced by CO poisoning. Because intracardiac thrombus can result in pulmonary embolism and cerebral embolic infarction, its consideration following CO poisoning is important.
Intracardiac thrombus formation induced by c... [Hum Exp Toxicol. 2013] - PubMed - NCBI

According to DAN, oxygen therapies can help in these situations, because the CO is inhibiting the transfer of oxygen to the circulatory system by taking up space on the red blood cells. More oxygen allows better oxygenation to the heart, potentially lessening the damage from a heart attack.

SeaRat



John C. Ratliff, CSP, CIH, MSPH
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom