Riviera Beach Florida Fatality

[irishsquid]

Curious, the Sun Sentinel said, "...surfaced from 15 feet of water with a group of fellow divers..." Was this from a safety stop? KARLUG stated they were diving at 80ft. Just wondering if it was just a typical incomplete or inaccurate story by the press.

 

[danvolker]

WOW so the charter boat Narcosis left half a dozen customers floating in the ocean and went to shore with the injured diver, leaving the other customers to be picked up by other boat(s). They must have realized the situation was very serious to leave you all floating out there.

Did they tell you they were leaving you to drift off in the strong current or did it only become evident when they left? Sounds like a terrible situation.

DD, why do you say things like this....You know all the Palm Beach boats are on the radio with each other all the time, and that they work together....Narcosis is also more than likely the fastest commerical diveboat in the County, if not the whole coast...so what boat better to get a diver in critical condition back to the dock for ambulance pick up?
Can you imagine a boat picking up a person with heart stopped, and deciding NOT to get the person headed for the hospital for another 40 minutes to an hour, because divers just dropped in the water? That would be bad judgement, when other boats could easily pick up the divers when they surfaced....that is what radios and a Dive Association is for.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

DD, why do you say things like this....You know all the Palm Beach boats are on the radio with each other all the time, and that they work together....Narcosis is also more than likely the fastest commerical diveboat in the County, if not the whole coast...so what boat better to get a diver in critical condition back to the dock for ambulance pick up?
Can you imagine a boat picking up a person with heart stopped, and deciding NOT to get the person headed for the hospital for another 40 minutes to an hour, because divers just dropped in the water? That would be bad judgement, when other boats could easily pick up the divers when they surfaced....that is what radios and a Dive Association is for.

Say what? Did I say they exercised bad judgement by leaving half a dozen customers to float off for 20 minutes and be picked up a mile or two from where they entered the water by another boat? Did I place any blame for anything that happened?

I was curious if the operator told the divers he was leaving them because he had an emergency that was more urgent then picking them up off the water. Leaving divers unattended floating north in a strong current is probably a tough decision for any captain. I don't necessarily find fault in it.

 

[Ayisha]

Can you imagine a boat picking up a person with heart stopped, and deciding NOT to get the person headed for the hospital for another 40 minutes to an hour, because divers just dropped in the water? That would be bad judgement, when other boats could easily pick up the divers when they surfaced....that is what radios and a Dive Association is for.

If they did that and delayed medical attention, people would be saying that they failed the victim by waiting for everyone to complete their dives safely and get back onto the boat. Most of us are aware that there are quite a few dive boats in the area and they all work together pretty well when tragedy strikes. None of us can blame a lack of urgency or trying here, it seems.

So there's an AED on board the Narcosis now?

 

[lv2dive]

Say what? Did I say they exercised bad judgement by leaving half a dozen customers to float off for 20 minutes and be picked up a mile or two from where they entered the water by another boat? Did I place any blame for anything that happened?

I was curious if the operator told the divers he was leaving them because he had an emergency that was more urgent then picking them up off the water. Leaving divers unattended floating north in a strong current is probably a tough decision for any captain. I don't necessarily find fault in it.

That was how I read it (that you were implying bad judgement/placing blame).

I read a lot more than I post and I respect the fact that you seem to speak your mind... so no issues with that. In this specific case, however, regardless of how you intended it, I *was* wondering what kind of beef you had with Narcosis. I've dove with them a couple of times and found them to be a very professional operation.

 

[Crush]

dD, to my mind your posts were tinged with cynicism but I am willing to consider that I am just having an off day. My point is not that you were critical, but that if you were not at least a few SB users all got the same (incorrect?) idea. At any rate, the Narcosis rushing a medical emergency to shore while leaving divers behind to be picked up by other boats was IMO the correct course of action. Another reason to make sure that I keep my SMB with me - to signal and as a comfortable float...

 

[KARLUG]

dD, to my mind your posts were tinged with cynicism but I am willing to consider that I am just having an off day. My point is not that you were critical, but that if you were not at least a few SB users all got the same (incorrect?) idea. At any rate, the Narcosis rushing a medical emergency to shore while leaving divers behind to be picked up by other boats was IMO the correct course of action. Another reason to make sure that I keep my SMB with me - to signal and as a comfortable float...

Being one the divers left in the water with my wife and several other fellow divers, I was totally good with the Narcosis decision. No he didn't waste time to let us know that he was leaving for the dock but after hearing the screems we knew it was a serious emergency. We all had our sausages inflated and saw several boats in the area. We really didn't feel any fear or panic. I was confident that we would be picked up. I was glad to see that he was rushing the injured diver to shore. He totally did the. Right thing. The passengers advised that the crew was doing everything possible to revive the guy. I'm an experienced recreational diver from Las Vegas and am not associated in any way with Narcosis. I will book with them again. They are professional, and did nothing wrong in my opinion. They did the right thing. Obviously, my only fear that day was for the injured diver. What a shame, my heart goes out to his family.

 

[Orlando Eric]

On a nice clear day I like drifting around and if it is clear enough looking down at the bottom. Coming up in a blowing Gale with 20' of visibility is not much fun though. I have not used it yet but the $300.00 diveable VHF radio sure makes me feel better about drift diving. Dumping the gear in this incident could have been any number of medical issues and achieving + bouyancy. One fin is odd though? --

 

[danvolker]

One of the differences in diving areas like our Mispah and Amaryllis ( the Corridor) is that you are so close to shore, it really would be crazy for someone to be nervous. From the Mispah, Sandra and I "could" easily swim to shore in about 45 minutes or less. That would be just a leisurely swim in, watching the bottom below like Eric is talking about, and looking for patch reef or fish that hang out off of the main reef areas. This last weekend, the vis was pretty awesome, and when we came up from finishing the Corridor dive , we all noticed we could see the ripples in the sand below, from floating on the surface.

Which reminds me, one time years ago, Jimmy Abernthey threw a line to me from Deep Obsession when I was freediving off of the Breakers Resort ( about 70 yards off the beach), and pulled me from the beach area to the 60 foot reef. Vis was about 120 feet that day, and the way he was dragging me, I could be 15 feet down or on the surface, and watch the bottom flying by....there was actually lots of cool stuff to see, and this ride was an absolute riot
He was pulling me at about 5 knots, my only issue was keeping my mask on ( fortunately it was a very low volume freedive mask, that was optimal for this).

But of course, the real issue in this thread is that there are so many diveboats immediately in this area, all working together.

 

[jar546]

One of the differences in diving areas like our Mispah and Amaryllis ( the Corridor) is that you are so close to shore, it really would be crazy for someone to be nervous. From the Mispah, Sandra and I "could" easily swim to shore in about 45 minutes or less. That would be just a leisurely swim in, watching the bottom below like Eric is talking about, and looking for patch reef or fish that hang out off of the main reef areas. This last weekend, the vis was pretty awesome, and when we came up from finishing the Corridor dive , we all noticed we could see the ripples in the sand below, from floating on the surface.

Which reminds me, one time years ago, Jimmy Abernthey threw a line to me from Deep Obsession when I was freediving off of the Breakers Resort ( about 70 yards off the beach), and pulled me from the beach area to the 60 foot reef. Vis was about 120 feet that day, and the way he was dragging me, I could be 15 feet down or on the surface, and watch the bottom flying by....there was actually lots of cool stuff to see, and this ride was an absolute riot
He was pulling me at about 5 knots, my only issue was keeping my mask on ( fortunately it was a very low volume freedive mask, that was optimal for this).

But of course, the real issue in this thread is that there are so many diveboats immediately in this area, all working together.

Which is exactly why the Narcosis captain made a great decision to put a priority of time for the patient. I commend the captain and the other boats for working together during a time like this. This is one of the reasons I love diving in this area. Now if I could just get a regularly scheduled boat to go to breakers when I have students................