TSandM: Missing Diver in Clallam County, WA

[DaleC]

A FFM would not fit into Lynne's approach to diving so she probably would not have used one. It both restricts primary donation and easily going onto a back up reg.

I am not so quick to dismiss the effect of a drysuit failure on any diver in those conditions (speaking in a general sense and not necessarily about Lynne). Of the few situations that could happen that I feel I might not be able to manage while solo diving, a catastrophic suit failure is one, along with the previously mentioned medical events. To be clear I do not mean a slow leak, which could also be serious depending on the exit, but a full on rapid suit flood.

Two summers ago we had a young healthy male go into cardiac arrest after cliff jumping on a hot day and traveling through the thermocline into much colder water. Such an event could also happen to an older, overexerted diver. If a suit failure occurred in conditions such as the ones faced by Lynne one would have to manage several resultant failures simultaneously:

• Loss of buoyancy
• Thermal Shock
• Heat loss
• Impeded leg movement

I'm sure, in a controlled or theoretical setting one would act in an appropriate manner but ITRW, under duress someone might react to those failures in a way that was sub optimal, or be incapacitated quickly by an ungovernable physical response to thermal shock. Do you immediately ignore the failure and go to the wing inflator or do you reflexively try to stop the flood. How much time do you spend there. Do you roll to the left and go horizontal to trap air in the suit or do you go heads up in an attempt to fin against decreasing depth. Do you work harder to increase the loss of effective leg movement (water trapped in suit) and become fixated on that response rather than using the wing...

In reality, any response would be unpredictable in the sense that such a reaction is not practiced before hand, for obvious reasons. We used to do cold water overboard drills for canoeing, which was hard enough, and I respect the effect that cold water has on both reaction and skills application.

Did this happen here? Probably not. But I wouldn't dismiss the effect of a major suit failure out of hand as something trivial or simple to manage.

 

[lamont]

The more I think about this situation the more puzzling it is to me.

There are very few things I can think of where the body wouldn't end up on the surface and that doesn't appear to be the case.

Speaking from experience with our local dive site which sees the bulk of the fatalities, generally dead divers wind up on the bottom, not on the surface (although one of the two events I was involved in the diver was on the surface, but she was conscious on the surface for a minute or two before she fell unconscious due to an AGE).

I suspect that the air escapes from the lungs and the diver sinks -- and once they start sinking dynamic instability makes them heavily negative when they're found.

Its only if the diver is conscious enough to reach the surface and inflate / orally inflate, or their buddy takes them to the surface and does that for them, that they'll be found on the surface. Drownings, AGEs and heart attacks usually wind up with the diver on the bottom.

---------- Post added September 2nd, 2015 at 07:19 PM ----------

As I mentioned, I wholeheartedly agree that a FFM would have likely made almost no difference here.

However, in future situations, I think the potential benefits of being able to precisely articulate a problem underwater / deal with buddy separation may be quite meaningful. There are certainly shortcomings; the pod-style setup will never be as streamlined as "Jam a reg in your mouth and call it a day", but I'm wondering if the payoff might be worth it to those disciplined enough to drill with them.

It's also worth mentioning that for serious technical diving, I'm not sure how useful they'll ever be. I've heard that the M-48's comms aren't brilliant as-is, I'd imagine that they'd be basically useless with helium thrown into the breathing mix.

The two real possibilities here are that her disabling event was either an AGE or some kind of cardiovascular event. In either case an FFM is perfectly useless to prevent or recover from the injury.

An FFM might be useful to recover from an oxtox on a CCR, since that is recoverable if you survive drowning, but even there its better to prevent the oxtox in the first place by maintaining your unit and sensors.

 

[rob1967]

I too am shocked and saddened by Lynne's passing.

There has been a lot of speculation here, and at first I did not want to add to it, but something just came to mind that would fit well with the known facts.

Fact #1: She was involved in an equestrian accident a few days prior to the dive.

Fact #2: She was lost after ascending from about 120 feet to 70 feet (I may not have the exact depths right). In any case, she was last seen venting her dry suit.

So, it is possible she may have damaged her lungs from the equestrian accident. Say a small tear in the lung tissue. She may then have developed a small pneumothorax from the equestrian accident. If the pneumothorax is small, it may be asymptomatic.

If she were to go diving with a small pneumothorax, the pneumothorax would get filled with compressed air at depth. Upon ascent, the pneumothorax would then expand significantly, and cause major problems. Certainly enough problems to cause someone to loose consciousness.

Although we will likely never know for certain what caused her to be lost, I think an expanding pneumothorax would fit fairly well with the known facts.

 

[charlier]

Bob's (Grateful Diver) comments are spot on - "one does not, suddenly, lose their experience or skills on a particular dive. My lessons are, first, I wish that I reached out to meet Lynnne while visiting Seattle. She was an ER Doc in my hometown, Ellensburg, WA. It perhaps time to re-exam my diving - cherish the experience and remind myself that its recreation. As a DM, I will try to be more caring and mindful of my group. I like to thank all the SB posters for their caring and sincere offers of condolences and support for Peter and his family. We will all miss Lynne. Charlie

 

[descent]

... it is possible she may have damaged her lungs from the equestrian accident. Say a small tear in the lung tissue. She may then have developed a small pneumothorax from the equestrian accident. If the pneumothorax is small, it may be asymptomatic.

If she were to go diving with a small pneumothorax, the pneumothorax would get filled with compressed air at depth. Upon ascent, the pneumothorax would then expand significantly, and cause major problems. ...

Interesting theory. Except Lynne dove the same site the previous day.

 

[BDSC]

Interesting theory. Except Lynne dove the same site the previous day.

I thought that was there first attempt at that site. Don't remember reading they had already done it?

 

[Colliam7]

I thought that was there first attempt at that site. Don't remember reading they had already done it?

Apparently, they dove it the day before, and had a great dive, and she posted a note about all the things they saw.

 

[Angry Turtle]

Interesting theory. Except Lynne dove the same site the previous day.

But maybe the same environmental and physical challenges did not present themselves the day before, so the suggested health complication didn't become an issue then.

On the other possible health complication that has been talked about, the possible head injury: I have a close family member who suffered a traumatic brain injury from a heavy object falling on their head. Some of the more serious symptoms (including motor impairment and tremors) did not surface until a week or two later.

 

[rickgillyon]

• Loss of buoyancy
• Thermal Shock
• Heat loss
• Impeded leg movement

I suspect you don't regularly dive with drysuits. Suit floods happen often, I've had lots of buddies get floods, and there's no impeded leg movement. No idea why you think there would be. Thermal shock and heat loss are an issue, but I've known guys with full suit floods continue the dive for half an hour with a suit full of water. And that's in the North Sea.

And using the wing for buoyancy is a given, no-one is going to struggle to try and keep air in the suit. You have a wing, you just use that. Lots of people use the wing for buoyancy anyway when wearing a drysuit. It's just such a long-shot that anyone is going to be seriously affected by a drysuit failure, I'm not buying it...

 

[AfterDark]

I suspect you don't regularly dive with drysuits. Suit floods happen often, I've had lots of buddies get floods, and there's no impeded leg movement. No idea why you think there would be. Thermal shock and heat loss are an issue, but I've known guys with full suit floods continue the dive for half an hour with a suit full of water. And that's in the North Sea.

And using the wing for buoyancy is a given, no-one is going to struggle to try and keep air in the suit. You have a wing, you just use that. Lots of people use the wing for buoyancy anyway when wearing a drysuit. It's just such a long-shot that anyone is going to be seriously affected by a drysuit failure, I'm not buying it...

Thermal shock and heat loss are an issue, but I've known guys with full suit floods continue the dive for half an hour with a suit full of water.

And that's in the North Sea.

Young guys or seniors?