Diver Dies-St Maarten

[drrich2]

Rick, from what others have posted rumors of the victim's presumed obesity have been greatly exaggerated. This is the accidents and incidents thread, and discussing how involved issues might impact diving regulation (or not) seems legitimate.

Often the 'full story' in divers deaths never makes its way to the general public and this forum. Even speculation can raise issues profitable to discuss, though in time they may turn out not to be the issues that killed the diver in a given incident.

That this could happen to any of us is one reason we're so curious about it.

Richard.

 

[Bob DBF]

i cannot believe the level of ignorance and insensitivity being displayed here by some.

I started to post a while ago that this thread was filled with vitriol.

I would like to also point out that there is a Report Post button at the bottom of each post so that anyone can make their case to the moderators that the individual post is "filled with vitriol", "ignorance and insensitivity being displayed" or off topic and should be deleted or moved to a separate thread. The terms of service for this forum are found at the top of the A&I page, two stickies by Rick Murchison.

It took until posts #54 and #58 for facts in the original post to be corrected, in most cases the original newspaper report is also the only information available, ever. Speculation, for the most part, is all these threads have, but a lot may be learned regardless. I find it is helpful to read all the posts and try to understand what the posters are trying to say rather than what I might want to understand them to say.

I believe that people that are sensitive and friends of the victims should not read A&I, because it can be unsettling at times. See the stickey at the top of the A&I page by bowlofpetunias.

Although the thread seems to be coming to an end, I thought you might want this information for the next thread.


Bob
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That's my point, people, by and large, are not taught that diving can be deadly, they are taught how safe it is, and they are not equipped with the skills, taught and trained to the level required to be useful in an emergency.

 

[rick00001967]

drrich2 - agree 100% that accident analysis plays a vital role in helping prevent the same from happening again. however, rumors, speculation, and assumptions are not helpful in that process.
yes, this is the accident and incidents "forum". but this "thread" was posted about a specific case. so by all means we should fee free to discuss possible related issues in this section of the forum but it is my opinion (which doesn't mean a thing) that a specific thread should deal only with the facts at hand.
from what i have read here, some seem to have gone so far as to make it sound like it was the divers own fault and they should never have been in the water in the first place. from what i can detect from the information avail, there is just no possible justification for such comments at this time.

example......who was the dive operator ? i don't know for sure. i was given two different names. so should i comment about either of those operators ? no. did the diver have a heart attack or suffer from an embolism ? i don't know. so can we discuss preventing either of these by using this specific case as an example ? no. because we don't know the answer to the question.

btw.....the articles from st maarten say the diver had no issues during the dive and went unconscious after surfacing while swimming back to the boat.

so can we have general discussions of this nature. sure. are those discussions helpful. of course. but perhaps better to do that in a separate thread. pointing fingers here at the diver and/or the dive op without knowing what really happened serves no useful purpose. just my opinion.

 

[Ayisha]

Some people seem to have missed this post by a family member telling us that the victim died of an air embolism:

Ok so a few things I'd like to go over. The deceased in this blog is my mom's cousin. She died of what is known as an air embolism (meaning an air bubble traveled in her blood stream to her brain and once it hit her brain causing a stop in blood flow she died instantly) for those of you uneducated divers out there you cannot reverse this fast enough to save the diver(PADI shows an example of this happening to a woman in a ten foot deep pool in one of the videos for the instructor course) . She had been diving throughout her entire life and was not a stranger to the sport. She took the risk of diving that day as we all do when we get in the water. I am just thankful that she went out in a painless manner rather than having to drown or suffer from decompression sickness. Thank you.

 

[MMM]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

A very large number of general comments about fitness, obesity, personal and political rights etc. were split off to a new thread located here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...9-diving-fitness-obesity-personal-rights.html

Please refresh your memory of the rules for posting in this forum and stay on topic about this specific incident. Marg, SB Senior Moderator

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[docdiver]

okay,
so...a diver died.....and there was no divemaster in the water to help this woman!
conditions were rough...okay I have dove w my certified kids in the carribean and Hawaii in similar conditions
Also have been in mexico and the next most experienced diver in the group, which is something I do not like.
Having been trained in the cave system in fla...
Why was there not another experienced diver in the water with this woman!
Her body type is irrevelant.....
All of us who dive in conditions that are rough know what to expect
Heck I have taken my boy in very rough diving conditions

I do know about lung expansion injuries
a pulmonary embolis sffects the lungs and not the brain

there is no hx of a rapid ascent to the surface
at the end of the day...I am my own controller of items that can hurt me
from my dsys diving in the caves of fla