Sunshine Coast diver medevaced - Queensland, Australia

[DandyDon]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...n/news-story/cd0375f714eaa2f724ea1e758e91b9ba

A SCUBA diver is in a serious condition after a medical scare in Sunshine Coast waters this morning.

Queensland Ambulance Service, including a critical care paramedic and rescue helicopter R511, were called to the scene near Harbour Pde in Buddina at 10.48am.

The man, in his 40s, had experienced a “medical condition”, a Queensland Ambulance spokesman said and was subsequently airlifted to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a serious condition.

The man had done an 18-metre dive this morning and closer to the surface he had “some form of seizure activity”, Queensland Ambulance operations supervisor Lorenz Kleinberg said.

The diver was pulled from the water unconscious by the diving instructor and transported by boat to land before being flown to hospital.

Mr Kleinberg said the man “improved quite dramatically” and was awake and talking on the flight to Brisbane.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Interesting. Dont want to speculate much on the "seizure activity". Hope his tanks get analyzed.

 

[DandyDon]

Hope his tanks get analyzed.

That may actually happen there. The "awake and talking on the flight to Brisbane" sounds hopeful.

 

[Kay Dee]

Interesting. Dont want to speculate much on the "seizure activity". Hope his tanks get analyzed.

You can be assured that that / those cylinders will be tested (if there is anything- left in his particular one at 'test time') as Qld Workplace Health and Safety officers - well, the diving ones in particular, whom if this was a 'commercial operation' accident which given the presence of an instructor may well have / seems to have been (later edit - actually was a com. op.) - will have their nose deep in this, and they generally can and do make the Gestapo look like kindergarten kids. As told direct to me by their esteemed leader at the time many years ago "There is no such thing as an accident, someone caused it, and we will always find that someone" to which he should have added '..... guilty or not' based on some of the cases I saw them bring against some operators.

 

[Wingy]

Everything down to the boat skipper and crews state of mind and activities the previous night including how many drinks they had and who with will be examined, interviewed re-interviewed and if he was diving off a private boat same will apply to boat owner and store that filled his tanks.

There are no half arsed investigations in Aus with WorkSafe.

Edit in response to Kay Dee. Don't assume the investigator is doing this just for a pay check or level 9 position. If you have a look at the Paspaley Pearls death off Broome a few years ago I sat through months of frustrated worksafe investigators discussing how they were hoping for a prosecution but dismayed at the fact there would be no improvement in industry practices because there is no other comparative model in the world similar enough to Paspaleys.

Top up it's about auditing response but I've yet to meet one inspector with the ahh just another worker who decided to take to wearing a toe tag attitude. They don't last long.

 

[Kay Dee]

................. and if he was diving off a private boat same will apply to boat owner and store that filled his tanks.

Is the above now the case (Oz wide)? Twasn't once in the area I once lived, and one of the reasons several of us CCR guys started filling / mixing our mixes privately, and diving out of a 'friends' boat as it was then classed as a 'private activity'. An accident occuring there may, and only may, have included the police, that is if death was the result, but not if it wasn't. And Worksafe, why they couldn't even get on your private boat, so they would be nowhere to be seen.

So your saying that now Worksafe has juristiction over private activities as well as 'in the workplace'? If so like I said in post above, even more like the Gestapo with tentacles reaching everywhere and sticking their nose in a place it has NO reason / was not meant to be.

There are no half arsed investigations in Aus with WorkSafe.

And their shouldnt be! But in the world I live in, accidents do happen, but that should not mean that there is always a prosectable culprit causing said accident. Somtimes it is / was simply caused by the dead or injured person with no help (pun not intended) from anyone eles save the injured / dead persons own mistake.

For instance a very basic example; you convulse while on a 'hot mix' (that was not fit for the depth you were diving) and survive the ordeal. Did you not analyse or watch the gas analysed in front of you yourself? If you did not, its your mistake and (should be) your responsibility from then on. End of, or IMO should be, story! On the other hand, if it was a dive shop that made up your nitrox and it could be shown that the analyser was faulty / sensor old, or the nitrox wasn't analysed in front of you (the old "She'll be right mate, I tested it for you"), then that is a 'duty of care' breach for the shop and others involved, unfortunately. Again, IMO anyway.

But IMO doesnt meany diddly to Worksafe. Nor do I have a clue re the intracies of this particular case save what I read in newspaper link above. But I did know officers in what was then called WH&S and some of them were bulldogs, while others more reasonable when looking at facts and assessing blame; shame our area had the top bulldog for that 'zone' though. But not sure if any of them had a truly balanced veiw save that up their long sleeve was the knowledge that they had the last word (in bringing someone to trial).

 

[Wingy]

Not sure when harmonisation laws will come in KayDee at present it's still state by state. Sorry I should have pulled that apart further - WorkSafe can't do jack if it's out of their jurisdiction in say a fatality on a private boat but the coroners inquest would do - I've spoken to some bulldog Coroners that make WorkSafe lawyers look like cocker spaniel puppies.

WorkSafe prosecutions often find the deceased partially or fully to blame for their death. If I decided to take a driver up the Nullarbor and dive Toad Hall I would be a) stupid and b) dead lol but s coronial inquest would take place under SA laws which are different from WA laws.

Qld WorkSafe actively had the diving industry under the cluster of industries that need "looking at" whether this is still the case, I'm not sure.

The issues of who's jurisdiction is further muddied with offshore divers coming under some Dept I'd never heard of until this morning. The 6 O & G workers injured in the blowdown operation off Western Australia were a total surprise to a longstanding worksafe team leader I was having breakfast with - he had no knowledge of this accident. The Oil and Gas body and WorkSafe NT are investigating. - why, I don't know.

All I know is yes, thankfully we don't do half arsed investigations here and all deaths without obvious cause are investigated. When we will have one body - good question !