Update on Michael Norwood
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Pliskin
New
I'm looking for more information on the death of Michael Norwood. Has anyone heard about the results of his autopsy?
This months Dan Alert (just got it last night) has a letter from his wife. She suggests that results are not conclusive, but that the problem was physiological. Check it out.
Kriterian
Guest
This was the last information I saw on his death, posted by his friend and partner in the show "Deep Sea Detectives." I know it's from an old post, but many people may not have seen it.
<snipped beginning about Richie Kohler>
As for Michael Norwood, he passed away on December 6, 2003. I thought the world of him. I thought he was a good man, a good partner, and he was my friend. I miss him every day.
Michael, Danny Crowell, and I were diving in Palau in about 250 feet of water, with a strong current and about 100+ feet of visibility. It was our third day of deep diving on the site. Prior to that, on our first day there, we dove a wreck in about 100 feet of water, to check out our gear. Danny and I were both diving rebreathers and Michael was on OC trimix. On the day of the accident, Michael had analyzed his gas with both oxygen and helium analyzers, on camera, as part of the show. The order of descent was Danny, Michael, and finally myself. Michael and I got to the bottom about the same time, in spite of the fact Michael had a 3 minute head start on me (for filming reasons). My descent time was about 7 minutes. Danny had descended 5 minutes ahead of us to set up his camera for the shoot. On the bottom, Danny had concluded that it was not suitable for filming, due to the current. He was waiting for us to arrive and decide what, if anything, we could still accomplish.
As Michael arrived at the bottom of the anchor line, he was only about 2 or 3 feet in front of me and about 15 feet away from Danny when he signaled "out of air". I immediately gave him my OC bail out regulator, as his regulator fell from his mouth. Michael appeared lethargic, confused, and disoriented. He was in fact out of trimix in his back mounts, and this was the first thing I checked. His side bottles were both full and operational. He was unable to respond to either Danny or I, and he would not release the anchor line to ascend in spite of vigorous coaxing. His left hand was bound around the anchor line in a firm grip, while his right hand was limp and flaccid. He did not seem panicked, with his eyes open at some times, closed at others. It was painfully slow dragging him up the line. He did not acknowledge us or assist us, and would not release the anchor line.
When he bottomed out my bail out tank, he held on to the mouthpiece of the empty tank regulator between his teeth so tight that it separated from the regulator as we tried to get him on his 40% nitrox regulator. Danny had to pry the mouthpiece out of his mouth, so we could get the nitrox regulator in. At about 150' he went unconscious, his regulator fell from his mouth, and he finally released the anchor line. We tried unsuccessfully to re-insert his regulator several times. His buoyancy became negative, indicating to me that he was taking water into his lungs. I manually inflated his BC, and brought him to about 100 feet before I released his body to the surface. Danny and I returned to about 166 feet to complete our deco. The crew topside was waiting with a suited up safety diver. They recovered the body immediately and began CPR. As you might imagine, their best efforts were unsuccessful.
Michael was an experienced trimix diver, and a trimix instructor. He learned technical wreck diving in the cold, dark waters of the English Channel. He had numerous dives in excess of 300 feet. By comparison, diving in Palau was no where near as challenging.
Michael apparently did not fully understand that he was running out of gas, or he would have turned the dive. Once he had run out of gas in his mains, all he had to do was switch to his deco gas, ascend, and do a drift decompression in the current (which was our plan anyway). With the visibility as it was, Danny and I would have seen him and joined him. Essentially, he had what he needed with him to safely ascend without any help from Danny or me. For some unknown reason he was unable to. It is still speculation, but it seems obvious that he had some serious problem other than just being out of gas in his mains. His descent was slow, much slower than mine, and he used a tremendous amount of gas. It is my opinion that he developed a serious medical problem during this descent. What that problem was, we will most likely never know.
The coroner in the UK is still investigating, and all of the tests are not completed including the toxicology. Both the death certificate and the national police report from the Republic of Palau, list the death as "Possible myocardial infarction" apparently leading to drowning. Although I think that this is possible, it is far from conclusive. It is my experience that deep diving accidents seldom reveal a conclusive cause of depth due to the biological complexities of deep diving.
Deep diving is inherently dangerous. Those of us that participate in it understand and accept that, but Michael's passing is both sad and tragic.
Regardless, I would like to thank all of you who have written me with your condolences to Michael's lovely wife, Diana.
Cheers
John Chatterton
<snipped beginning about Richie Kohler>
As for Michael Norwood, he passed away on December 6, 2003. I thought the world of him. I thought he was a good man, a good partner, and he was my friend. I miss him every day.
Michael, Danny Crowell, and I were diving in Palau in about 250 feet of water, with a strong current and about 100+ feet of visibility. It was our third day of deep diving on the site. Prior to that, on our first day there, we dove a wreck in about 100 feet of water, to check out our gear. Danny and I were both diving rebreathers and Michael was on OC trimix. On the day of the accident, Michael had analyzed his gas with both oxygen and helium analyzers, on camera, as part of the show. The order of descent was Danny, Michael, and finally myself. Michael and I got to the bottom about the same time, in spite of the fact Michael had a 3 minute head start on me (for filming reasons). My descent time was about 7 minutes. Danny had descended 5 minutes ahead of us to set up his camera for the shoot. On the bottom, Danny had concluded that it was not suitable for filming, due to the current. He was waiting for us to arrive and decide what, if anything, we could still accomplish.
As Michael arrived at the bottom of the anchor line, he was only about 2 or 3 feet in front of me and about 15 feet away from Danny when he signaled "out of air". I immediately gave him my OC bail out regulator, as his regulator fell from his mouth. Michael appeared lethargic, confused, and disoriented. He was in fact out of trimix in his back mounts, and this was the first thing I checked. His side bottles were both full and operational. He was unable to respond to either Danny or I, and he would not release the anchor line to ascend in spite of vigorous coaxing. His left hand was bound around the anchor line in a firm grip, while his right hand was limp and flaccid. He did not seem panicked, with his eyes open at some times, closed at others. It was painfully slow dragging him up the line. He did not acknowledge us or assist us, and would not release the anchor line.
When he bottomed out my bail out tank, he held on to the mouthpiece of the empty tank regulator between his teeth so tight that it separated from the regulator as we tried to get him on his 40% nitrox regulator. Danny had to pry the mouthpiece out of his mouth, so we could get the nitrox regulator in. At about 150' he went unconscious, his regulator fell from his mouth, and he finally released the anchor line. We tried unsuccessfully to re-insert his regulator several times. His buoyancy became negative, indicating to me that he was taking water into his lungs. I manually inflated his BC, and brought him to about 100 feet before I released his body to the surface. Danny and I returned to about 166 feet to complete our deco. The crew topside was waiting with a suited up safety diver. They recovered the body immediately and began CPR. As you might imagine, their best efforts were unsuccessful.
Michael was an experienced trimix diver, and a trimix instructor. He learned technical wreck diving in the cold, dark waters of the English Channel. He had numerous dives in excess of 300 feet. By comparison, diving in Palau was no where near as challenging.
Michael apparently did not fully understand that he was running out of gas, or he would have turned the dive. Once he had run out of gas in his mains, all he had to do was switch to his deco gas, ascend, and do a drift decompression in the current (which was our plan anyway). With the visibility as it was, Danny and I would have seen him and joined him. Essentially, he had what he needed with him to safely ascend without any help from Danny or me. For some unknown reason he was unable to. It is still speculation, but it seems obvious that he had some serious problem other than just being out of gas in his mains. His descent was slow, much slower than mine, and he used a tremendous amount of gas. It is my opinion that he developed a serious medical problem during this descent. What that problem was, we will most likely never know.
The coroner in the UK is still investigating, and all of the tests are not completed including the toxicology. Both the death certificate and the national police report from the Republic of Palau, list the death as "Possible myocardial infarction" apparently leading to drowning. Although I think that this is possible, it is far from conclusive. It is my experience that deep diving accidents seldom reveal a conclusive cause of depth due to the biological complexities of deep diving.
Deep diving is inherently dangerous. Those of us that participate in it understand and accept that, but Michael's passing is both sad and tragic.
Regardless, I would like to thank all of you who have written me with your condolences to Michael's lovely wife, Diana.
Cheers
John Chatterton
crosing
Contributor
Thanks for the post, I had not seen it. I was wondering what had happened.
My condolences to family and friends.
My condolences to family and friends.
Wasnt he (John Chatterton)the same guy that was on the boat with the Rouse's in the book The Last Dive?
medic_diver45
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It was such a shame to lose tragically such a good person (from what I hear, I never had the pleasure of meeting Michael, but I have heard it said he was one of the greatest people you could ask to meet). My heartfelt condolences go out to the family, Mr. Chatterton and the rest of the Deep Sea Detectives crew, and to everyone who knew Michael and will miss him dearly.
Kriterian
Guest
diverbob:
Yes that was him. He worked with Danny Crowell and did a few recoveries from the Andria Doria also.
You can read his great book, Shadow Divers, to learn more about him. I highly recommend it, I'd say it was tied with "The Last Dive" for my favorite non-fiction dive book,
DEEPLOU
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Kriterian:
I felt that "Shadow Divers" was an easier or faster read than "The Last Dive" even though I have read LD twice and SD only once (so far).
What makes these books more interesting for me is that I know some of the divers and captains mentioned in both.
Kriterian
Guest
DEEPLOU:
I wish I could have met some of these people, and I hope to speak to them in the future.
I think I liked "The Last Dive" because it started with the characters in the beginning. By the end of the book and the tragedy, you really felt like you knew them personally. This is one of the reasons I liked "Shadow Divers" as well, the history on Richie and John.
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