16 replies to this topic

[shadragon]

As usual, the details are extremely sketchy, so watch for more facts as they come to light.

If he was struggling for breath on surfacing then he was already in a bad way. However, I won't speculate on causes. The details need to come out.

Added later: More info here

[ScubaDadMiami]

http://www.pensacola...NEWS01/70819002

"Published - August, 19, 2007

Oriskany diver dies


Thyrie Bland
tbland@pnj.com

A man who died over the weekend after diving at the Oriskany could be the artificial reef?s first dive-related death.

The 39-year-old, whose name was not released, died sometime after being taken to Baptist Hospital on Saturday, said Steve Lewallen, a U.S. Coast Guard civilian search and rescue controller.

The Oriskany is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that was sunk 24 miles southeast of Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006. As expected, it has become a popular dive spot, attracting divers from all over the world.

Saturday?s death occurred after the victim surfaced from a dive and was having difficulty breathing. He also was in and out of consciousness, Lewallen said.

It appeared that the man was having symptoms of the bends, Lewallen said.

The bends, also known as decompression sickness, describes a variety of symptoms that occur when someone experiences a reduction in body pressure. It can occur when a diver ascends too rapidly during a dive or does not carry out decompression stops after a long or deep dive.

Once the 39-year-old was back aboard the H2O Below, a local charter boat, a registered nurse administered oxygen. A call for help also was made.

?They couldn?t depart immediately because other divers were in the water,? Lewallen said.

A Coast Guard boat was launched to meet the H2O. The boats met just outside Pensacola Pass.

The victim was put aboard the rescue boat and taken to the Pensacola Coast Guard station where a helicopter was waiting to take the him to Baptist.

?He died a few hours after he got to the hospital,? Lewallen said.

In 2006, another man died after a dive at the Oriskany, but his death not dive related, officials said.

Chester ?Chet? Alan Robinson, 55, who owned a tattoo and body piercing shop, went into cardiac arrest after boarding a recreational boat and removing his scuba gear.

Robinson stopped taking his medications after having a stent placed in his heart in February 2006. He had been advised by his doctor not to dive.

Jim Phillips, part owner of MBT Divers on Navy Boulevard, said people make the Oriskany dive just about everyday.

?Everybody talks about what an incredible dive it is,? he said. ?It?s a beautiful spot.?
Phillips said he has made the dive about five times.

?There are some locals that have made the dive over 100 times,? he said. ?They still come back talking about how awesome it was.?

Phillips said he does not think Saturday?s death will discourage divers from making the dive.

?For the most part, it?s just an unfortunate occurrence,? he said."

From comments on the article:

"I was on the boat, and this guy had the absolute best care he could have under the circumstances. 5 of us from Central Illinois, (2 IDC Staff Instructors, 1 Divemaster / EMT, and 2 Divemasters in training (meaning we are both EFR and Rescue Certified), Then, 2 more Divemasters, and the Captain of the boat, Captain Douglas....and another Divemaster in training, so as far as qualifications of not only the Captain and crew, but even the patrons, were more than anyone could ask for given the situation.

The two rebreather divers had dove the Oriskany the day before as well, and returned a second day. They were familiar with the site, they were also very experienced techinical divers. I talked to them at length on the way out and their resume was impressive.

I passed the diver who passed away, while descending on my second dive at the safety stop depth of 20ft. He seemed fine. It seemed to be a long extended safety stop. I had been on the surface waiting on my dive buddy for several minutes because he was having a minor equipment problem, but I could see down to the diver and he was simply hanging on to a tether in the moderate current....finally as I descended, I had to literally skip over him and like I said, he seemed fine. I understand that once he reached the surface, he complained of being tired, and then passed out. He was breathing in his own, but was immediately given oxygen and treated. He was basically unresponsive. I was the last patron on the boat, so it was me they were waiting for, but calls had already been made to the Coast Guard. I was informed were to go, and eventually became involved helping those immediately attending to him, and holding a sunshade over the man and the assisting crew, whcih involved the Registered Nurse from a nearby boat. Since our boat had an EMT, my friend from Illinois, on board, we left the dive site and she (the RN) returned back to the boat she came from....

I was informed and overheard radio transmissions that a helo was on it's way, and we prepared for a helo rescue securing all gear to insure nothing was sucked up into the rotors while it hovered. The Captain was in constant contact with the Coast Guard, and they requested that we head in and meet either a boat or a helo..so we did, at full speed. The waters were 2 to 3 ft and rollers, so it was a fairly smooth ride in.

The guy's pupils were reactive, and he moved his right foot several times. A constant vigil stood over him and the EMT maintained constant contact and administered oxygen, vitals were checked at 5 minute intervals and constantly noted to aid the extended rescue. At about15 minutes into the trek in, the captain asked for an ETA for the Rescue Boat or Helo, and was informed the boat had us in his site and was at about 6 miles...but the helo was 30 minutes away.....30 minutes....That means from the time the initial call went out, to the time a helo could have been on scene was over an hour.....I would guess that we were literally 10 minutes by Helo, not counting understandable prep time (meaning engine warm up-systems check etc.) But it was a Saturday at mid day....not some obscure time.....where were the Helos? I like to think they were assisting other people, and it was simply bad luck as far as timing goes. You can't be all places at once....

I'd just like to say....great Job by the crew of Below H20 in its efforts to save this man's life. It is still undertermined what was the cause of death,it could have been a stroke, heart failure or dive related.....such as "the bends". Whatever it was, I would not hesitate to dive again right now with Below H20, as a matter of fact, I feel even more safe with them. The boat had 2 tanks of Oxygen on board, and we were lucky, because the Coast Guard Boat that met us, did not have any....Nor was there an EMT on board so our EMT and our IDC Staff Instructor went with them...We arrived at the Coast Guard station 10-15 minutes after the Coast Guard boat arrived, and I question whether that was the right decision by the Coast Guard to move him to their boat. It probably took 15-20 minutes to move him over.....if you include the time it took to secure the two boats together for a safe transfer. Maybe we should have just been allowed to continue in with him....

In my opinion, Captain Douglas was very dissapointed that the Helo never arrived as he expected and prepared for it to from the start."

[shadragon]

That's a different incident from 2006 in Divester, but the comments section at the end of that article is interesting.

Sorry. Spaced on the date...

[Latitude Adjustment]

What's with all of the question marks in that report?

[Topless]

What's with all of the question marks in that report?

Goofy formatting -- the question marks replaced single and double quotation marks for some reason.

I have to agree with the comment in the article -- why did it take an hour for the helo to arrive? The Oriskany is 2 hours offshore by boat.

[dustbowl diver]

Sorry to learn of this tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends!!

[netmage]

What's with all of the question marks in that report?

Goofy formatting -- the question marks replaced single and double quotation marks for some reason.

I have to agree with the comment in the article -- why did it take an hour for the helo to arrive? The Oriskany is 2 hours offshore by boat.

Threads over on TDS indicate CG helo's are not stationed in Pensacola and "The closest CG helo to Pensacola and the Oriskany is stationed the the Mobile airport in West Mobile."

He was diving a rebreather and this was a technical dive, reports indicate ~165' w/ a runtime of 90 mins; which is a fairly serious dive. For comparison, when I dive open circuit to similar depths, I do 30mins on the bottom, and 30-40 mins ascent and thats a fairly conservative profile. So, it leads me to ask the question, which (or both) were extended to consume the 90 mins... BT, Ascent, or both...

Reported accounts indicated a 8x12" square of blotches along his ribcage, which sounds like skin bends, shortness of breath sounds a little like some symptoms and a type 2 hit I've personally experienced, I'd expect a lung embolism to have description of blood/froth from the mouth.

[PerroneFord]

The Oriskany is 2 hours offshore by boat.

Depends on the boat. Our outbound and inbound trips took less than an hour and that was with 4 divers with tech gear (doubles, deco gas, oxygen, etc).

[Scubatooth]

Netmage

not necessarily; with cardiac compromise splotchyness on the chest is a pretty normal event and when cardiac problems are occurring, and shortness of breath is the biggest symptom, if the person goes unconcious its because of a pump (heart) problem/failure as blood isnt getting to where it needs to be (IE no/ineffective pumping of blood to the brain = Death). where in the TDS report as the one i read earlier today didnt mention anything about skin bends or the frothy speutum as when i read through it; there was more of a blame game on the USCG then anything.

It could be DCS but Its to early to tell, let the rumor mill alone and let the corner do there job instead of armchairing it. For all we know this could have happend as the person walked down the street.

Then this is the second time i have heard he was on CCR, can some one confirm this as the TDS report isnt conclusive to me.

[netmage]

Agreed.... a sad day indeed....

Edited by netmage, 20 August 2007 - 09:20 PM.

[ScubaDadMiami]

I read from a post by another person, whom I personally know and would tend to believe, that the diver was on an Optima. However, without knowing that equipment played any kind of role in the incident, it could just as easily have been open circuit or any other rebreather.

I also read another post where the diver was spotted at a shallow deco stop that seem to be uneventful. Again, this was reported by someone who claimed to at least witness this much.

Rumors will fly. I still remember the guy who died down here on a Meg. He was reported to be a highly experienced instructor and rebreather diver. However, months after the original story came out that was almost implying that the CCR was the cause, the later news reports stated that he apparently was trying to spear a large fish, was working hard, and was carrying a bail out bottle that apparently did not have a regulator on it when the incident happened. So, I would not rush to make a decision about what happened here until we know more about what actually did occur.

[diverdeb]

Then this is the second time i have heard he was on CCR, can some one confirm this as the TDS report isnt conclusive to me.

I was out there and saw him on the deck of the H2O Below. He was definitely using a rebreather. The reports I heard while out there were his depth was 165' and his run time was 105 minutes. I assume they got that from his computer, but I was not actually on the boat and would have to consider that to be only speculation right now.

The H2O Below is an excellent boat with a good captain and crew. I work on another boat out there and we've all become a big family over the past year because we see each other all the time. There's a great deal of comraderie between the charter boats here. On any given day you will see the crews swimming from boat to boat during surface intervals to see friends. We have all prepared a great deal for the onslaught of divers the Oriskany has brought. We also carry 2 bottles of O2 as well as an AED. All of our crew are at a minimum Divecon level with 1st Aid/CPR/AED training. We put Divecons in the water on every dive, as do some other boats.

I don't know any more details about the dive, but all I've heard is he was a very experienced diver. Sometimes an accident happens anyway.

As for the helicopter and the Coast Guard, I also have no details, but I heard Life Flight (from Baptist Hospital) picked him up when they got to shore and took him to the hospital.

My prayers go out to his family and friends.

[diverdeb]

As usual, the details are extremely sketchy, so watch for more facts as they come to light.

If he was struggling for breath on surfacing then he was already in a bad way. However, I won't speculate on causes. The details need to come out.

Added later: More info here

This link is about a death that happened last summer (see the date). That accident was determined to be completely unrelated to the dive - heart problems.