November 2, 2011 Florida Keys Diver Death

[Hatul]

It's not clear what the cause of death was, but what struck me was that he did not get medical clearance to dive in Australia, and I'm wondering why? Someone diving at that age should get some medical clearance, including an exercise stress test. The DAN recommendation is stress test above 45 yrs of age.

Adam

 

[diversdaughter]

Sorry I haven't been able to get on sooner. The package did not arrive today. They were dropping it in the mail Wednesday night so I was hoping for the best from the US Postal Service.

To answer some of the queries that I can, he did not get medical clearance to dive in Australia because he didn't think ahead enough to obtain it from his dr. I had received many a phone call from him while on vacation to call his dr to get the clearance and he was always given one, no questions asked. The dr would fax it to me and I would fax it to whatever dive operation he was using. He had no medical restrictions with regard to diving. He was a living liver donor in 1999 and as a result routinely saw his dr. His stress tests were always clear.

As for people who say he'd rather go that way, in my father's case that was definitely true. But like I commented earlier, I'm 1000% sure he'd rather it have happened at 85 and not 65.

With regard to the heart attack reference, he did not have a heart attack. A myocardial infarction is not the same as sudden death. My father was brought back onto the boat, his only complaint, as far as I know, was being tired, and then the lights went out. He didn't know what hit him. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think I'd want to know what hit me either so he and I are likeminded in our views of how we'd like to go, if given a choice.

I have noticed that there has been no discussion about this incident on the forum. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't looked. I don't know if I am allowed to mention the name of the outfit he was diving with so I haven't but if you'd like to know I'll certainly post it.

 

[diversdaughter]

oh, I just saw the last post, Adam, it is clear. Manner of Death is stated as Accidental. Cause of Death is stated as strenuous exertion due to rough seas. There's no confusion with regard to that.

 

[reefman]

to my understanding the operator was OD. please, DIVERSDAUGHTER , correct my statement if it is inaccurate. thanxs for posting this thread, my sympathies,,,,,,,,

reefman
key largo

 

[diversdaughter]

yes. They did a bang up job taking care of him from what his dive buddy tells me. My heart absolutely breaks for everyone on that boat that day. I can't imagine what it would be like to witness something like that.

 

[reefman]

rest assured, the master on the OD vessel that day, is the best of the best. he has no equals, in my view,,,,,,,,


reefman
key largo

 

[diversdaughter]

Thank you, reefman. That's reassuring. There is no doubt in my mind they did everything they could. It was just one of those things. Like I said before, I'm just glad he didn't drown. The thought of him drowning was just too much.

 

[DandyDon]

Diversdaughter, thanks again for sharing here today. No, I couldn't find anything on this Accidents forum or online news about the accident. Without posting your dad's name, you might use the Search box to see if his last name has been used anywhere on Scubaboard in the last couple of months?

And please feel welcome to share more as you may want to. Sometimes it helps.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

So Dad enters the rough water before his buddy. He waits for his buddy. His buddy enters the water and does not see dad. Buddy decides to descend without dad and to look for him. Then he looks for him underwater for a minute and then resurfaces and immediately indicates that he has lost his buddy... Then dad is found floating 1000 feet behind the dive boat and is tired and they drag him back to the boat, where he collapses and dies.... Is that the story?

Was the dive boat tied to a mooring bouy? Where they diving a wreck? Did dad have a whistle or dive alert (air powered horn)? What did dad's dive computer show? Did he go underwater to any depth or did he stay on the surface?

If dad did not descend, but instead, got over exerted on the surface how and why did he get so far behind the boat? Would he not call for help, blow a whistle, yell to the crew and why would the crew not notice a diver on the surface drifting back behind the boat and allow him to get nearly 1/4 mile behind the boat before sending a swimmer after him?

If that is the story, it is hard to understand how his buddy left him, went down to look for him, couldn't find him and then resurfaced all in 60 seconds? That would seem to be a very short time to accomplish all those things, but it would depend on the depth and water clarity, I assume. If dad started to drift backwards right before the buddy entered and then the buddy dove only for one minute and sounded the alarm, how would dad get so far behind the boat?

I would ask the buddy, how deep did he dive in his search for dad. That would give some indication of how long it took and an indication of how long it took to sound the alarm.

Even though a diver can comfortably rest on the surface by inflating their vest, if they were in rough water and there was a strong current, and they were trying to descend down a mooring, then a diver would need to swim hard to fight the current at the surface if he chose to (or was directed to) wait for his buddy at the surface near the mooring buoy. It might be difficult to hold onto a mooring buoy in over 4 ft seas in a strong current at the surface, especially if a dive boat was using it. So it is conceivable that someone might chose to try to hold position and kick against the surface and wait for buddy on the surface. This could be very strenuous.

 

[diversdaughter]

Believe me, dumpsterdiver, I cannot WAIT to get my hands on the incident report to answer many of these very questions. All I keep thinking is where the heck was everyone else looking that someone just floated away? I've worked hard since this happened to keep my mind open because I am not a scuba diver and no absolutely nothing about what the process is. Everything I have relayed here was as told to me by his dive buddy, the Inspector for the ME and the detective. I didn't question any of them extensively yet because I wanted to be sensitive to what his dive buddy had gone through and also I wanted to allow the investigators to do their job without me hounding them. Not an easy thing to do in a situation like this.

Yes, they were diving a wreck and his dive buddy did mention being tied to a buoy. I have absolutely no idea what happened between the time he entered the water and the time he was located. I'm hoping the interrogations from everyone aboard the boat will answer that for me.

I can't even begin to imagine that he floated away on top of the water, I'm sure he would have been seen. As for how far down his buddy went, he told me 10 feet. I also can't begin to imagine that dad didn't realize he was being pulled away from the boat. I have lots of questions for the involved parties that I am reserving until I receive the final reports. I had no idea divers wore computers prior to reading that in this forum so if the information is not provided I will definitely be requesting it.