Woman dies during scuba dive off Wilmington

[Mikemccrsa]

An article I ran across on the internet.

Maryland
Malfunctioning equipment could have contributed to fatal dive......could not be reached for comment Friday.

Truly tragic.

I have a few questions and I sincerely hope that they do not offend anyone. My aim here is to try and learn something from this, being a very inexperienced diver myself.

1. What was the experience level of the diver?
2. Where was her buddy in all of this?
3. Is it common to attempt a dive when one is feeling ill on the boat?
4. If the dry suit appeared to be overinflated how was the diver able to descend rapidly?

Thanks

Mike

 

[deepair]

If I remember, She and her husband were experienced. Not sure if husband was close by or not. It is very common for people who are seasick to get in the water. We tell people regularly that they can puke though the regulator. When I teach Drysuit, as do all others, I/we teach people how to deal with a rapid ascent. Drysuit inflator buttons can stick. Though I have several hundred dives in Drysuits and have never had it happen. A drysuit diver creates a layer of air between his/her body to create warmth. On ascent, if the exhaust valve on the left shoulder is left closed, the air in the suit will expand on ascent and create a rapid ascent. I hope this helps.
PS... I have a Friend who lives in Jo'burg, SA..

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I was hoping not to see this thread reopened. Lonewolf is a friend and I met his wife a couple times. She was an experienced diver with over a couple hundred dives. She was diving sidemount which she was experienced in and she had drysuit experience as well. She splashed because she was feeling a little queasy due to sea conditions. So she went in as many of us would do. Joe was less than 30 seconds behind her. Plan was to go down to the hang bar and wait. Very common. Sea conditions were too much for both to splash at the same time from the same point. She went in off the stern. he went in amidships. When he got to the bar she was not there. As they had done before he assumed she went on down because the bar was jumping pretty good. He went down to the wreck and looked for ehr for a minute. Did not see her so he went up. By the time he got to the stern she was on the deck getting CPR. She surfaced less that 30 seconds after after he went in. For wreck divers in the Atlantic the procedures for entry were not out of the norm. As an instructor I ideally want divers to descend together and for new divers if this is not possible they should not enter the water. But for those of us who have a degree of self sufficiency and dive in less than ideal conditions this is not always possible. I myself have waited for my buddy on the downline because the surface is too rough. Those experienced technical divers (and both were) who often dive together know each other well enough to trust each others judgment and let each diver decide if conditions warrant a deviation from what would, in my mind, be cardinal rules for new divers. The drysuit was NOT a factor. I am not at liberty at this time to discuss other factors that were involved until I get permission from Joe to talk about them. But in this case procedures were followed (I have dove with Joe and will again because I trust him with my life), the divers knew what they were doing, knew the risks, and knew their equipment. This was one of those times that outside and truly unforseen circumstances contributed to an outright accident.

 

[Mikemccrsa]

I was hoping not to see this thread reopened. Lonewolf is a friend and I met his wife a couple times. She was an experienced diver with over a couple hundred dives. She was diving sidemount which she was experienced in and she had drysuit experience as well. She splashed because she was feeling a little queasy due to sea conditions. So she went in as many of us would do. Joe was less than 30 seconds behind her. Plan was to go down to the hang bar and wait. Very common. Sea conditions were too much for both to splash at the same time from the same point. She went in off the stern. he went in amidships. When he got to the bar she was not there. As they had done before he assumed she went on down because the bar was jumping pretty good. He went down to the wreck and looked for ehr for a minute. Did not see her so he went up. By the time he got to the stern she was on the deck getting CPR. She surfaced less that 30 seconds after after he went in. For wreck divers in the Atlantic the procedures for entry were not out of the norm. As an instructor I ideally want divers to descend together and for new divers if this is not possible they should not enter the water. But for those of us who have a degree of self sufficiency and dive in less than ideal conditions this is not always possible. I myself have waited for my buddy on the downline because the surface is too rough. Those experienced technical divers (and both were) who often dive together know each other well enough to trust each others judgment and let each diver decide if conditions warrant a deviation from what would, in my mind, be cardinal rules for new divers. The drysuit was NOT a factor. I am not at liberty at this time to discuss other factors that were involved until I get permission from Joe to talk about them. But in this case procedures were followed (I have dove with Joe and will again because I trust him with my life), the divers knew what they were doing, knew the risks, and knew their equipment. This was one of those times that outside and truly unforseen circumstances contributed to an outright accident.

Jim,

Thank you for making the sacrifice of re-opening terrible wounds. I apologise again for dredging them up. Your post has anwered a lot of the questions I still had and maybe one day the pain would have dulled sufficiently for the other factors to be discussed if there is anything to learn from them. If not then there is absolutely no reason to raise this issue again.

Mike