Two tourists die in Vietnam diving accident

[DandyDon]

Two tourists die in Vietnam diving accident - Monsters and Critics

Hanoi - A French and a Russian tourist have died while diving off the coast of central Vietnam, police said Wednesday.

Another Russian was found unconscious in the sea near the tourist island destination of Cu Lao Cau, and was being treated in hospital, Dinh Kim Lap, a police official of Tuy Phong District of Binh Thuan province, told the German Press Agency dpa.

The cause of Monday's accident was 'not clear,' Lap said. 'The case has been handed over to Binh Thuan Provincial Police.'

The province's police said the dead were French citizen Philippe Bousseau, 47 and Russian Alexander A Nikolav, 42. The bodies were being kept at Binh Thuan Provincial General Hospital awaiting autopsy.

On Monday, fishermen were alerted when they discovered a third diver, a Russian whose name was only given as Pavel, floating unconscious in the water.

On regaining consciousness, he indicated to his rescuers that there were two more divers. The fisherman dove to search for them, but found they had died underwater.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

So where does a monster come in to this story. Mekong catfish? Giant Stingray? Godzilla on vacation in Nam?

 

[drbill]

Don, Don, Don... do you have a direct line to the global coroner's office? You seem to know about these sad events well before the rest of us.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.

 

[DandyDon]

Got to wonder about this one? One unconscious, other two dead...?

So where does a monster come in to this story. Mekong catfish? Giant Stingray? Godzilla on vacation in Nam?

Click the link.

Don, Don, Don... do you have a direct line to the global coroner's office? You seem to know about these sad events well before the rest of us.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.

Google Alerts by email. Wishing you the best too.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Didn't realize that was a website name. Shoulda clicked the link.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

This sounds like it may be carbon monoxide poisoning--just speculation, but three divers involved on the same dive indicates a common problem, and that's the only one I can think of. Do divers regularly check their air for CO while on vacations where the air source is unknown? It is not too expensive to do so with a Drager pump and a detector tube.

SeaRat

 

[DandyDon]

This sounds like it may be carbon monoxide poisoning--just speculation, but three divers involved on the same dive indicates a common problem, and that's the only one I can think of. Do divers regularly check their air for CO while on vacations where the air source is unknown? It is not too expensive to do so with a Drager pump and a detector tube.

Well, that is one possibility altho I don't think we have enough info to strongly suspect CO. It's been a personal interest of mine for some time to say the least, some would call it DD's obsession. If you search the word monoxide on Scubaboard, you'll see a few threads. It's been my experience that the vast majority of sport divers do not appreciate the risk enough to bother testing tanks or even looking at compressors, and the vast majority of compressor operators don't monitor, test, or do much.

I check every tank and have turned a boat around on 17 ppm. :shocked2: There are better testers than Drager's today tho, I think. The new Analox portable looks great. I will be using one along with a Pocket CO for comparison testing on my next trip.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

DandyDon,

Thanks for the information and the links. 17 ppm is quite high, and at 33 feet translates to the surface equivalent of 34 ppm, at 66 feet the surface equivalent of 51 ppm, etc. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Value (TLV) for CO is 25 ppm, and there is no Short-Term Exposure Limit (STEL, which for other chemicals is a higher level allowed for 15 minutes). These are workplace exposure limits, I might add.

Concerning the Drager hand pump and detector tubes, the tubes are simple, easy to use, and require no calibration. The Analox OEII CO Analyzer that you link has a range of 6 ppm accuracy. To me this means it can be off by 6 ppm over or under the actual reading in a year. The Drager tubes are plus or minus 25%, which at 25 ppm is approximately the same as your instrument. There are other instruments with greater accuracy, including 3 gas monitors used in confined space entries, but they are more expensive and have a calibration gas and procedure which needs to be done periodically.

As you stated, we really do not have enough information to determine what the cause of the two deaths and one incapasitation is (causes are) for this particular situation. But it would be nice to know what the Russian tourist was treated for at the hospital, and the symptoms the diver had.

Years ago, I looked at an accident involving CO which caused a diver to have a heart attack at depth and die. I will try to find some information on it at home tonight.

SeaRat

(PS--I am a Certified Industrial Hygienist)

 

[DandyDon]

DandyDon,

Thanks for the information and the links. 17 ppm is quite high, and at 33 feet translates to the surface equivalent of 34 ppm, at 66 feet the surface equivalent of 51 ppm, etc. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Value (TLV) for CO is 25 ppm, and there is no Short-Term Exposure Limit (STEL, which for other chemicals is a higher level allowed for 15 minutes). These are workplace exposure limits, I might add.

Yeah and it gets more complicated on ascent as the CO molecule binds to the blood but the partial pressure of Oxygen deceases, so the CO effect becomes more pronounced.

I wish that CO sensors did not drift, but they can. They have a lifespan around 5 years these days, but for low range, accurate reading need to be bump-tested and perhaps calibrated every six months or before a dive trip. The Pocket CO can be calibrated easily at home, and Analox is finishing up plans for the same with theirs. There just wasn't much done with CO risks in sport diving until recently but Analox has come into the game swinging hard.

(PS--I am a Certified Industrial Hygienist)

How interesting. I'm preaching to choir here, huh?

It would be interesting to learn more, but for Russian and European divers in Viet Nam, maybe shore diving from the sound of the story, not likely I don't think.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Yeah and it gets more complicated on ascent as the CO molecule binds to the blood but the partial pressure of Oxygen deceases, so the CO effect becomes more pronounced...

Don, I hadn't thought about that aspect. Thanks! Do you have any reference studies on it?

SeaRat