Virginian diver dead at 190 feet - Roaring River State Park, Missouri

[L13]

Another possibility could be panic caused by hypercapnia and narcosis, the resulting struggle to breath off a bailout and loss of buoyancy could look like oxtox seizures. The cause would still be the wrong diluent choice so I'm not sure if it even matters except to satisfy some pedantic morbidity.

Hypercapnia, narcosis, and oxtox are not mutually exclusive. They can all occur at the same time, they all enhance the adverse effects of the others, and they all can be caused by the same wrong gas choice.

 

[J-Vo]

However, that continuous addition should be removed by metabolism (unless set incorrectly). Perhaps the non-official 1.8 atm ppO2 early report mentioned above was in error. Certainly seeing the time-history of the ppO2 would have been useful.

Even with the o2 shutoff it would be very difficult to controll the PPO2 on that descent with that gas.

EDIT: Keep in mind we usually start the dive with pure O2 in the loop or close to it.

 

[J-Vo]

....... (that I can think off) to add o2 is if somehow there was a mixup with some form of dill addition.

I find the KISS dual mave quite easy to mix up the buttons. Add extreme narcosis and.....

I believe this is why Ed configures with two separate MAVs. Personally I'm happy with my Fathom dual needle valve, but making sure it's not upside down is part of my pre jump list.

 

[Richard Dayan]

I was poisoned by what I believe was carbon monoxide in Sosua Dominican republic from the scuba tank, I went to the German filling station, where they filled the tank and found out that they don't have a digital carbon monoxide detector only an old chemical detection kit that looked like it hasn't been used in years. He told me I was the only one who complained and said its the dirty Dominican tanks or that I was vaccinated that caused me to feel sick. There was no physical separator between his generator exhaust and his air intake for filling , they were only separated by a distance of 15-20 ft with the generator exhaust pipe approximately 5 ft higher in altitude. His generator was huge and old. Also carbon monoxide is not lighter or heavier than air its neutrally buoyant and invisible, it seemed likely that the wind could blow some invisible gasses towards the air intake. He did not use the air he was filling.

 

[L13]

Even with the o2 shutoff it would be very difficult to controll the PPO2 on that descent with that gas.

EDIT: Keep in mind we usually start the dive with pure O2 in the loop or close to it.

From my reading of the report, it appeared that they suspected excessive manual adds of O2. Possibly adding O2 thinking he was adding DIL, and adding more "DIL" because O2 was high driving O2 even higher. And not realizing it because he was narc'ed, until he became hypercapnic and then ox-toxed.

I could be miss-reading or miss-understanding.

 

[lermontov]

From my reading of the report, it appeared that they suspected excessive manual adds of O2. Possibly adding O2 thinking he was adding DIL, and adding more "DIL" because O2 was high driving O2 even higher. And not realizing it because he was narc'ed, until he became hypercapnic and then ox-toxed.

I could be miss-reading or miss-understanding.

thats my reading of it too. The question I have though, and it comes back to the SOP systems they employed, is what was the rationale for this mix? and was it an approved choice as per the management of the project? was it a case of group think? (or Abilene paradox as has been mentioned before )or the more experienced influencing the less and nobody questioned it?

 

[Manatee Diver]

and was it an approved choice as per the management of the project?

It wasn't an approved mix, they didn't have SOPs to check other divers gases. And the team have made SOP changes to prevent it in the future.

 

[crofrog]

Standard gases are a way to insulate yourself from this kind of risk.

 

[stuartv]

Standard gases are a way to insulate yourself from this kind of risk.

So, he would have been better off on EAN32? I mean, that's a Standard Gas, right?

He used the wrong gas for the dive. You can choose the wrong gas for a dive, whether you are choosing from Standard Gases or not.

He had a process for choosing a suitable gas. Whether the process was a Standard Gas matrix or a Best Mix process is irrelevant. He did not use the process, and that was the problem.

 

[grantctobin]

So, he would have been better off on EAN32? I mean, that's a Standard Gas, right?

He used the wrong gas for the dive. You can choose the wrong gas for a dive, whether you are choosing from Standard Gases or not.

He had a process for choosing a suitable gas. Whether the process was a Standard Gas matrix or a Best Mix process is irrelevant. He did not use the process, and that was the problem.

The colloquial use of standard gas is the correct gas among standard gasses for that dive, no? Whether you like WKPP, GUE, or the others (UTD, etc), none would suggest 32% for Eric’s dive.

And “best mix” per diver on a project like this would be extraordinarily asinine.