Results of investigation ,Grand Cayman

[EastEndDiver]

cayCompass.com :: Coroner's Jury: Scuba diver's death was by misadventure

 

[beaverdivers]

Was she out of air?

Her buddy & the Dive Tech team followed rescue & EMS procedures. They did everything they could do to no avail.

Unfortunately, the odds are against being able to bring someone back.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Was she out of air?

That would have been good to know. Here's what they say at the end: "The physical cause of death was reported as acute pulmonary barotrauma and sea water drowning. Mr. Jyoti listed as a significant contributing factor 'rapid ascent while scuba diving from a depth of 60-30 feet to the surface. Trigger unknown.' "

So bascially they're saying she made a panicked ascent and embolised, which caused the drowning, but we don't know what casued her to panic in the first place.

I've talked before about the 4-step model that DAN has created which I also championed at the recent West Coast Coroner's Conference where I spoke on "Why Divers Die." the DAN model is (1) Trigger, (2) Disabling Event, (3) Disabling Injury, (4) Cause of Death. But the trigger is really the key for us in the diving community to understand these accidents in a way that we can advise people to do this or that (or NOT do this or that) to avoid the same fate.

In this case (1) is unknown, (2) is panicked ascent, (3) is pulmonary barotruma, and (4) is drowning. but it sure would be nice to know #1 to get a complete picture of what happened. Knowing whether or not there was air in the tank would be helpful in narrowing down the possibilities.

This case is also a good example of how quickly things can go south. (And this is not meant to be construed as blaming the husband.) He was ahead of her (personally, I always prefer side-by-side), looked back, and she was fine, When he next looked back (time lapsed is unknown) she wasn't there but was already on the surface and by then it was too late as the damage had occured. It doesn't take long for a routine dive to become anything but and that's why you need to be ever-vigilant in monitoring depth/time/air, monitoring yourself (in general terms), and keeping an eye on your buddy. Scuba's a lovely sport but when things go wrong, we're in an alien, life-threatening environment. Too often, it seem to me like divers forget that part of it.

- Ken