Diving Heart Attacks

[mclir9]

I have been reading numerous dive magazines and seeing that one of the main causes of SCUBA related deaths are due to Heart Attacks. Is there another reason for this other than the person being out of shape, or already at risk?? Does anything related to the physics of Scuba diving, i.e. the mix of air, the depth, the pressures etc., have anything to do with the heart attacks or is it just that the physical activity causes them on unsuspecting peoples, so these same victims could have just as easily went jogging for the first time in 10 years and had a heart attack too??

 

[paddler3d]

...is it just that the physical activity causes them on unsuspecting peoples, so these same victims could have just as easily went jogging for the first time in 10 years and had a heart attack too??

I've heard a lot of folks call SCUBA diving the 'great equalizer'. Once your in the water, you're neutral, so people who may not do other activities do SCUBA.

A lot of divers are older. A lot of divers are not in the best of shape. A lot of divers have a large profile.

Aspects of SCUBA are stressful. Putting on all that crap and getting to and from the water can be a lot of work. Fighting a current is hard. So as much as we try to be a relaxed as possible, it is not always that way.

Think about how little we know about our bodies and diving. Look at freedivers. They are diving way deep. In theory we shouldn't be able to freedive past 130ft. Our lungs should simply collapse, but they don't. Dive tables are theoretical. They are tested on humans. Put a diver in a chamber and if they get bent the repeat the dive until the diver doesn't get bent and they call this the M value.

There is no real short answer to you question, but I'd generally agree with you. It is just if you have a heart attack at 100ft, it sucks for you.

 

[OldNSalty]

I think to a point diving encourages out of shape people to be active. In otherwords, if I go jogging and am out of shape-I know about it long before I have a heart attack (usually) but I can have a 100 dives in idea conditions and never exert myself and so the one time something frieghtens me or I come up too far from the boat, no I have to exercise and BLAM.

But I am not a Dr. I only play one on the weekends.

 

[OldNSalty]

I
There is no real short answer to you question, but I'd generally agree with you. It is just if you have a heart attack at 100ft, it sucks for you.

I think that is also a major factor that can get overlooked. Have a heart attack in the park and you have a good chance of someone getting you to the hospital to be treated. Have 1 at 100 feet and you might drown before they get you to the boat. Also, there is generally a lot more wait time for rescue once on the surface.

Becuase of this, a minor heart attack at depth that is normally survialable will do you in real quick.

 

[Peter_C]

Here in NorCal we have abalone divers, where every year a number of them die. There are some divers that gear up get into the water and are in trouble before they ever descend. Our water is cold, it takes a thick wetsuit (Or possibly drysuit for scuba divers) which can cause a person to overheat, often the walk to the water is further, and entries are rough. Combine these all together and it takes a huge toll on a person before they even enter the water. The further the distance traveled to the dive site, the more likely the person is going to get into the water no matter what the conditions are. 5-7' swells is a nice day for us. Right now they are slamming our coast at over 20'.

So yes physical condition plays a huge part in the deaths around here, but so does going out in bad conditions, when they should be on shore hanging out with friends. We recently lost a father whose son was in the water with him. The conditions were above what most of us North Coast Divers would consider acceptable. He perished when he tired and was carried away by the current, eventually drowning.

BTW most people that die in the ocean/water, are considered to have drowned, no matter what the initial cause of death was.

 

[mudhole]

I have been reading numerous dive magazines and seeing that one of the main causes of SCUBA related deaths are due to Heart Attacks. Is there another reason for this other than the person being out of shape, or already at risk?? Does anything related to the physics of Scuba diving, i.e. the mix of air, the depth, the pressures etc., have anything to do with the heart attacks or is it just that the physical activity causes them on unsuspecting peoples, so these same victims could have just as easily went jogging for the first time in 10 years and had a heart attack too??

Heart Attacks Happen. Young kids, old men and women, and every age and sex in between. Heart disease, and a virus that attacks the heart all cause death regardless of what you think an out of shape diver is in. Experienced divers are relaxed in the water. If you want to "save" people from themselves. Prohibit diving for everyone young or old, Marathon runners, couch potatoes, weight lifters or not. Heart disease can be looked at, but not with any predictability when or if it will kill.

A diving resort with thousands of divers there every month, will "sometimes" have two deaths a month while diving. One of the two will be a heart attack, the other from behavior or other diving "reason". But there are other heart attacks on the island from non-divers. Ban resort diving? Ban going to resorts? Ban travel? Most deaths from heart attacks are at home, early in the morning. . . If you want to live a long life, stay out all night partying till late in the morning.

 

[Crush]

This might shed some light on deaths from heart attack while diving:

From DAN's "ANNUAL DIVING REPORT," 2007 EDITION, BASED ON 2005 DATA:

1. If this is ANY indication of the prevalence of heart disease among scuba divers, of the 996 divers participating in Project Dive Exploration, just over 2% reported heart disease as a chronic condition;
2. DAN received notification of 167 deaths during scuba diving in 2005. Medical history was available in 35 cases (40%), although rarely complete. The most frequently reported medical conditions were high blood pressure (14 cases, 15%) and heart
disease (13 cases, 14%);
3. Of those 167 deaths, eighty-two percent of males and of females were 40 years or older. The range of males was from 18-71 years, with a median of 50 years. The age range of females was 28-58 years, with a median of 43 years. Summary: divers are getting older;
3. While disproportionately large muscle mass will raise BMI but high values are more frequently associated with fatness on a population basis. BMI data available for 43 fatality victims indicated that 26% were classified as normal weight (18.5-<25.0 kg&#8901;m-2), 37% were overweight (25.0-<30.0 kg&#8901;m-2), 28% were obese (30.0-<40.0 kg&#8901;m-2) and nine percent were morbidly obese (&#8805;40 kg&#8901;m-2). The percentage of divers with the BMI of 25.0 kg&#8901;m-2 or greater among fatalities (81%) appear greater than reported by the National Center for Health Statistics for U.S. adults aged 20 years and older (65%) (1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey). Summary: divers are getting fatter;

Also,

Re-posted from http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/296690-skydiving-scuba-safer-4.html

Taken from an alertdiver.com summary of a study conducted by Dr. Petar J. Denoble, Neal W. Pollock, Panchabi Vaithiyanathan, Dr. James. L. Caruso, Dr. Richard Vann and Joel A. Dovenbarger, R.N., published in the medical journal Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine in December 2008:

1. Comparisons with other sports are problematic since the measures of exposure (e.g., the number of dives, hours of jogging, etc.) are not always available. For example, the annual rate of 16 fatalities while diving per 100,000 divers is comparable to the 13 deaths while jogging (per 100,000 joggers). However, a jogger may run several times a week, but a diver might only dive two to three weeks a year;
2. Fatality rates for scuba diving and driving a car are nearly identical when calculated per number of participants. However, the vast majority of us will spend much more time in traffic situations than in diving; and
3. The rate of injury among divers is much lower than the rate of injury amongst most other sports. However, the likelihood that a diving injury will result in death is much higher than for most other sports.

 

[TMHeimer]

I never give heart attacks a second thought. Perhaps because I was single 'til age 40 and always alone. Well, not ALWAYS... I still find myself away from my wife and others--like 2 weeks alone at the cabin. Heart attacks just happen and if you are alone your number's up. I wonder how much better off you are if you have one at depth with a buddy. Does the buddy get you to the surface in time a decent percentage of the time? Assuming he has at least SOME rescue skills...

 

[JeffG]

I have been reading numerous dive magazines and seeing that one of the main causes of SCUBA related deaths are due to Heart Attacks. Is there another reason for this other than the person being out of shape, or already at risk?? Does anything related to the physics of Scuba diving, i.e. the mix of air, the depth, the pressures etc., have anything to do with the heart attacks or is it just that the physical activity causes them on unsuspecting peoples, so these same victims could have just as easily went jogging for the first time in 10 years and had a heart attack too??

Another issue.

Your chances of survival of a heart attack while scubadiving is small. While having a heart attack on a golf course, your chances are much higher for survival.

 

[AfterDark]

I've often pondered whether build up on the inner walls of arteries is exasperated by the pressure at depth? Are they compressed to the point of causing heart attacks by narrowing the passages even more making the heart pump harder and faster in conjunction with increased physical activity?

If the answers are yes that might account for heart attacks among older divers with no history of heart problems. I have early onset of hardening of the arteries at 55 years old but my heart tests fine, I work out 5 days per week though not as hard as I did years ago. My blood pressure is higher than normal not sky high but high enough for treatment, for which I do take medication. When I mentioned to my doctor I was getting back into diving he didn't blink an eye. He was more surprised to have found out that I stopped in the first place! I'll have Mrs. AfterDark do a posting if I throw snakes eyes from a heart attack while diving. If anyone knows the answers to the questions I posed please pipe up.