Fatality in Tobermory

[Aquabella]

thanks guys, I'll pass along your sentiments.

Jo's articles are very informative, you guys should pm her for them. *sigh* maybe we can get one of the docs down here to weigh in...this whole thing has me, and I'm sure some of the others, kind of freaked.

 

[sparky30]

Please don't let the accident freak you out. Its tragic, that's for sure, but we can learn from it and try to give it a positive spin as much as possible. Personally I will do some more reading on pulmonary edema. Keeping your skills up is another thing I learned. 30 dives in two years doesn't sound like much. I've been diving for 12 months this weekend and I have just under 80 dives. To be honest I wouldn't call that frequent either.. I make sure that I get my dives in a variety of different environments.. Not all at the same spot. I also built my depth slowly and comfortably, and I wouldn't do a 100 ft dive as my first dive of the season. In between open water dives I try to get into the pool as often as possible and I do all kinds of drills. From valve shutdowns to mask removals and buddy breathing.. its fun and most skils become almost a reflex. THe big thing to remember is that when it stops being fun, call off the dive. So many people seem to forget that.. If something doesn't feel right, call it off...I'd rather be called a chicken and an idiot back on the dive boat, than be the person in the body bag. I think we could all learn from diving accidents. The thing is not to let it freak you out. There are always risks in life.. Diving has even more risks.. You just have to manage the risks properly and try to reduce them as much as possible.

 

[DivingGal]

Aquabella once bubbled...
thanks guys, I'll pass along your sentiments.

Jo's articles are very informative, you guys should pm her for them. *sigh* maybe we can get one of the docs down here to weigh in...this whole thing has me, and I'm sure some of the others, kind of freaked.

I'll let the "Docs" know of the interest here for more information... understandably they don't often wander outside the Medical Forum.

In the mean time, here's an article from Diving Medicine OnlinePulmonary Edema etc I get the newsletters from Diving Medicine Online and found them very informative in expanding my knowledge of conditions associated with diving.

 

[Doppler]

sparky30 once bubbled...
Please don't let the accident freak you out. Its tragic, that's for sure, but we can learn from it and try to give it a positive spin as much as possible. Personally I will do some more reading on pulmonary edema. Keeping your skills up is another thing I learned. 30 dives in two years doesn't sound like much. I've been diving for 12 months this weekend and I have just under 80 dives. To be honest I wouldn't call that frequent either.. I make sure that I get my dives in a variety of different environments.. Not all at the same spot. I also built my depth slowly and comfortably, and I wouldn't do a 100 ft dive as my first dive of the season. In between open water dives I try to get into the pool as often as possible and I do all kinds of drills. From valve shutdowns to mask removals and buddy breathing.. its fun and most skils become almost a reflex. THe big thing to remember is that when it stops being fun, call off the dive. So many people seem to forget that.. If something doesn't feel right, call it off...I'd rather be called a chicken and an idiot back on the dive boat, than be the person in the body bag. I think we could all learn from diving accidents. The thing is not to let it freak you out. There are always risks in life.. Diving has even more risks.. You just have to manage the risks properly and try to reduce them as much as possible.

Sparky: with that attitude and outlook, you stand an excellent chance of becoming a "seasoned and respected" veteran.

Keep practicing the skills until the muscle memory kicks in. And take notes... fill you log book with notes on how you felt and what you learned as often as possible.

And as for bailing on a dive.... remember the technical diver's credo:

ANYONE CAN CALL ANY DIVE AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON WITHOUT FEAR OF REPROACH.

Take care and dive safe.

doppler

 

[Groundhog246]

Doppler once bubbled...
And as for bailing on a dive.... remember the technical diver's credo:

ANYONE CAN CALL ANY DIVE AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON WITHOUT FEAR OF REPROACH.

Didn't realize this was a "technical" credo, our LDS has always said the same. Our 14 year old called his 4th dive on his OW cert. On surfacing, said his feet were too cold (water was 41F) and he was having trouble concentrating. His instructor praised it as a wise decision, made sure he was ashore safely and continued the dive with his buddy. Will be making up the missed dive soon.

Maybe we should move the Oedema discussion to the medical forum. There's are lot of reading in the information posted so far.

 

[on my way wanda]

Doppler once bubbled...



Sparky: with that attitude and outlook, you stand an excellent chance of becoming a "seasoned and respected" veteran.

Keep practicing the skills until the muscle memory kicks in. And take notes... fill you log book with notes on how you felt and what you learned as often as possible.

And as for bailing on a dive.... remember the technical diver's credo:

ANYONE CAN CALL ANY DIVE AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON WITHOUT FEAR OF REPROACH.

Take care and dive safe.

doppler

Remember !!! If not comfortable with a dive don't do it. I called a dive in Gilboa doing my OAW. It was a one day trip there and back. I was not able to equilize well and the cold water clouded my thinking, we ended up aborting the dive and I stayed at the surface for the rest of the day. lesson to be learned

 

[mglasspo]

The number of dives a person gets in in two years will vary depending on a lot of things, their available time, the fact that they may be renting gear. I've got just over 30 dives in and am working to increase that considerably. This is my 3rd year in the water. I have dived with advanced level divers (same cert that I have) that have 9 dives under their belt.. that sounds like all their checkouts and that's it. I know since I've bought gear my dive frequency has been increasing steadily. I'm trying every second weekend.

As for calling the dive, if you don't call a dive when you don't feel up to it, you're just plain dumb. One of my buddies was surprised I wasn't upset at him when he had trouble equalizing and spent 30 minutes of the dive at the 10-20ft range trying to equalize, I told him that I wouldn't be much of a buddy if I were mad at him for something as trivial as that.

 

[danielle]

thats pretty shocking... my condolences go out to the family. My mom was actually up there last weekend, but she didnt hear anything about it. My dad dives the arabia all the time and being that we are from London aswell (i live in montreal now though my parents still live in London) it just hits a little close to home.
my prayers are with the family ... its always hard when we loose another member of the scuba community!

 

[Aquabella]

You guys are right on with the advice and I apprieciate it. The thing is I don't really consider it an 'accident'. The conditions were good on the dive, he had previous experience in Toby at the same time of year so I don't consider the cold to be an issue. The dive was going just fine, he didn't panic. It was a medical issue and one that seems to be totally related to diving. That's the part I find scary.

 

[divebuddydale]

Aquabella once bubbled...
You guys are right on with the advice and I apprieciate it. The thing is I don't really consider it an 'accident'. The conditions were good on the dive, he had previous experience in Toby at the same time of year so I don't consider the cold to be an issue. The dive was going just fine, he didn't panic. It was a medical issue and one that seems to be totally related to diving. That's the part I find scary.

The cold could have been an issue (even though he had experienced it before). It could have added to the factors. Kinda like food allergies (i.e Peanuts) you can eat them for years, then all of a sudden you have an anaphalctic (sp?) episode with peanuts. It could be a build up effect.

Just some musings

Dale