Man Dies After Dive on Spiegel Grove

[showboat]

KEY LARGO -- A Missouri man died while scuba diving with a friend on a Florida Keys shipwreck, authorities said Monday.

<name removed>, 48, of Kansas City, appeared to be in some distress during a dive Saturday at the Spiegel Grove artificial reef and signaled that he needed to surface, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said.

Fellow divers helped the victim remove his gear, but he lost consciousness as he climbed on board the chartered diving boat, the sheriff's office said.

Paramedics and a sheriff's deputy met the boat at Key Largo Harbor Marina, but
the victim was declared dead at the dock. the victim's dive gear was taken for examination. An autopsy will be scheduled.

According to
the victim's friend,
the victim was a frequent diver and they'd been diving many times together before, the sheriff's office said.

The former USS Spiegel Grove is the largest intentionally sunk ship in the world. It has served as an artificial reef in 130 feet of water off Key Largo since its sinking in 2002. The 510-foot long ship, designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, was retired by the Navy in 1989.

 

[mike_s]

Is this the first accident resulting in a death on this wreck? just curious.

 

[Walter]

We don't yet know that it was a diving accident. While it could be a death from an AGE, it could also be from natural causes.

 

[500 PSI]

There are others, sorry to hear this, God Bless him!

 

[Big Mike]

Is this the first accident resulting in a death on this wreck? just curious.

NO!

I think the first one was toward the end of 2005.


Mike

 

[Divingguy]

I'll be in Key Largo this coming Saturday/Sunday. I am sure that this incident will be a buzz in the entire area. Hopefully there will be more info available before then, but if not I will certainly see what I can find out.

Tom

 

[crpntr133]

Sounds more like a natural death. Of course it could have been something in his "oxygen tank". Still sorry to hear about anybodies death.

 

[mike_s]

We don't yet know that it was a diving accident. While it could be a death from an AGE, it could also be from natural causes.

True...

but if a diver dies underwater from something like asphyxiation (insufficient intake of oxygen ) and though he never sucks water into his lungs, coroner's or medical examiners will still put down cause of death as "drowing" since they were in water though they really didn't drown. Even if he had a heart attack that caused all of this for example.

Of course the legal definition of drowning is asphyxiation caused by immersion in fluid, but to most of us, drowning usually includes sucking in water into our lungs.

 

[Walter]

if a diver dies underwater from something like asphyxiation (insufficient intake of oxygen ) and though he never sucks water into his lungs, coroner's or medical examiners will still put down cause of death as "drowing"

he lost consciousness as he climbed on board the chartered diving boat

Doesn't sound like it applies. There's no reason to speculate.

 

[erdoc1]

True...

but if a diver dies underwater from something like asphyxiation (insufficient intake of oxygen ) and though he never sucks water into his lungs, coroner's or medical examiners will still put down cause of death as "drowing" since they were in water though they really didn't drown. Even if he had a heart attack that caused all of this for example.

Of course the legal definition of drowning is asphyxiation caused by immersion in fluid, but to most of us, drowning usually includes sucking in water into our lungs.

I agree - I had a 34-year-old man come in to my ER as a cardiac arrest back in late August. He was asthmatic, and was riding on the back of a jetski, and was terrified of the water since he was unable to swim. Apparently he had trouble breathing and panicked on the jetski, lost consciousness, fell off the jetski into the water, but was wearing a lifejacket so his head never went under. He was brought to shore, where he was found to be in respiratory failure, was intubated by paramedics (this is where the story gets muddy - I think they intubated his stomach, but we won't go there for medicolegal purposes) ended up pulseless en route to me, and I called it after a 50 minute resuscitation. I had to work so I couldn't attend his postmortem exam, but the ME called it a drowning. He never breathed in any water! It was a respiratory arrest from reactive airway disease!
The ME pretty much classifies death as "natural" or "unnatural." The specifics aren't too important, at least in the county I practice in.