Virginia Beach Diver In Critical Condition

[lweatherall]

This is what is on the WAVY 10 web site about the incident:

Coast Guard medevacs 2 divers off coast
Updated: Monday, 21 Jun 2010, 6:13 AM EDT
Published : Saturday, 19 Jun 2010, 6:51 PM EDT

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - A Coast Guard helicopter crew airlifted two divers suffering from decompression sickness from a boat about 30 miles east of Virginia Beach Saturday afternoon.

The crew of the dive boat Miss Lindsey called the Coast Guard at 1 p.m. after two men, 65 and 19, surfaced from a dive. The crew reported the 65 year old was having medical problems.

A Coast Guard flight surgeon recommended a medevac.

The Coast Guard sent a Jayhawk helicopter crew from Elizabeth City to get the diver. Once on scene, they lowered a rescue swimmer to check on the man. They then hoisted him into the helicopter and took him to Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, which has a recompression chamber.

About half way to the hospital, the dive boat crew called again reporting the 19 year old started displaying the same symptoms. The Jayhawk crew dropped off the first man at 2 p.m. and returned to the boat to medevac the other diver. They were able to pick up the 19 year old and return to the hospital by about 2:45 p.m.

The Coast Guard said the 65-year-old man was last reported in critical condition.

The Lynnhaven Dive Center in Virginia Beach runs the Miss Lindsey. According to their Web site, the boat was diving the Ocean Venture wreck, a 7,174 ton freighter sunk by a German U-boat in 1942. The dive center limits the trip to experienced divers only due to depths of 170 feet, according to their Web site.

The medevacs were the third diving incident in about three hours for the Coast Guard's 5th District. A 45-year-old man in North Carolina was taken to Carteret General Hospital with symptoms of decompression sickness after his dive at about 10 a.m.

 

[RAD Diver]

As been posted they are wrong on the site, it was changed to the Morgan when no one else signed up besides me.

They still require AOW to dive 100ft in Va. Beach. The older diver is an instructor & very experienced. But I have never known him to dive just for fun without students.

 

[robint]

any information about the diver out of Morehead City area? what boat?

robin

 

[Drewski]

Hi All:

RAD Diver and I are buddies and regularly dive Virginia Beach and North Carolina. Both of us have rescued victims of serious dive accidents, most with good outcomes.

I have been on dive boats in both states and attended patients with Type I and Type II DCS. I've flown people on USCG helos and have worked some on the boat all the way back to the dock 3 hours after the accident. Fortunately, in the real world, I have the skills and experience to help people.

Some dive boats will offer everyone another dive if an accident happens. Others won't.

Truth is, if you witness a bad accident like the one described here, it won't really matter to you because you quickly understand how very little money REALLY matters in these types of situations.

Hopefully, none of you will ever need to experience that...

Andy

 

[Bratface]

It is kind of shallow to expect a refund when someone's life is on the line. I have assisted a diver with suspected DCI on a deep wreck dive, and I went to the hospital with her via ambulance. Everyone on the boat was concerned for her welfare and I was assisted as needed by other divers to contribute to her care. My thanks was knowing that she was treated and released later that evening. Her dive buddy gave me a bottle of fine wine (totally unnecessary, but a thoughtful gesture).

 

[fishtree]

And the fact that 2 were in Va. Beach & 1 was in Beaufort NC I think bad gas would be not an issue, though maybe the diver in NC was from VB.

I also heard that the 65yo diver was unconscious at the bottom (no planning for that) & brought up by the 19yo.
The 65yo is an instructor & possibly had the 19yo as a student. If this is true the 19yo did a heck of a job, but should have either went back down or went straight to o2.
Someone on the boat should have said or done something if in fact he was a student & didn't know any better.

I was the only diver signed up to do the deep trip planned (to the Ocean Venture), but bailed on the chance to dive the Morgan for the 10th time this year.

I also know the name of the 65yo diver, but won't say anything until more is known.

I got my training at LDC and am looking for updates to injured divers and whether their identification has been released to the public. Thanks

 

[RAD Diver]

Unfortunately there have been no updates on any of the venues I have tried, no one seems to be talking.

I hope all make a quick & full recovery.

 

[w ripley]

I hope all make a quick & full recovery.

Bobby,

Thanks for the updates. I'm never surprised anymore when people take hits. Many times there just isn't a correlation (or at least an obvious one) with what the diver was doing when it happened.

All of us hope the divers make full recoveries.

Bill

 

[RogerAGrimes]

any information about the diver out of Morehead City area? what boat?

robin

I don't remember exactly. One of the possible boats was from Discovery Dive Center, but I don't know for sure if that was the involved boat, because I wasn't paying enough attention to the other boat during the time of the incident (i.e. the other boat was gone with the victim when I came up from my dive).

I haven't heard any updates on any of the divers.

 

[Bratface]

So Roger, it's safe to say that you don't know anything about what happened?