Daylonious
Señor Pantalones
It always sucks to hear that we've lost one of our own, but I can say that this article although imperfect, does the best job I've seen in recent memory of talking about scuba intelligently..
D.
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/12242005news81326.cfm
Asphyxia led to scuba diver's death
Saturday, December 24, 2005
By JOHN BRANTON, Columbian staff writer
A scuba diver who was found dead in the pool at Thunder Reef Divers on Monday ran out of air while using a rebreather, a highly technical device that allows divers to breathe the gases in their equipment over and over.
Harvey L. Harris, 51, died of accidental drowning due to asphyxia, Don Phillips, an investigator for the Clark County medical examiner, said Friday.
If a rebreathing system isn't working properly, the diver can breathe too much carbon dioxide and too little oxygen, lose consciousness and drown, Phillips said.
Two experienced scuba divers told The Columbian that it is the first such fatal accident they had heard of.
"For a rebreather user to go unconscious in a swimming pool, I've never heard of it happening," said Steve Lowe, owner of Steve's Scuba Center in Milwaukie, Ore. "That's just a one-in-a-million type of a situation, if that."
Harris, who lived in Wilder, Idaho, west of Boise, was an advanced diver certified in the use of his rebreather, said Nikki McGinnis, manager of Thunder Reef Divers at 12104 N.E. Highway 99 in Salmon Creek.
"He dove solo with his rebreather in the ocean all the time," McGinnis said.
On Monday afternoon, Harris was found unresponsive and in a sitting position, wearing his scuba gear, on the bottom of the shop's pool.
"It was as if he just fell asleep," McGinnis said Friday. "It's really sad. It's just a horrible series of events."
Brad Lundberg, a Thunder Reef employee, jumped into the 10-foot-deep pool and pulled Harris to the surface. Lundberg and McGinnis performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation but couldn't revive Harris, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
McGinnis said Harris was an occasional customer who had gone diving the day before in the Tacoma area. On Monday, he stopped by Thunder Reef to get his gas cylinder refilled.
Harris was waiting for a Thunder Reef employee who is a trained gas blender to return to the store, McGinnis said. Since Harris still had some gases in his cylinder, he decided to use it up with his rebreather in the shop's pool for practice.
Harris was alone in the pool, which Thunder Reef allows in the case of highly experienced divers, McGinnis said.
Rebreathers like the one Harris had been using were developed by the military and are used by Navy SEAL units.
Rebreathers can allow divers to stay underwater longer than conventional scuba gear, divers said.
Some types release no gas bubbles when a diver exhales, which can have advantages in military operations.
Rebreathers also have advantages for undersea photographers because released bubbles can frighten away fish the divers are trying to shoot.
Lowe, a diver for 40 years and a scuba instructor for 30, said few divers use rebreathers, in part because of their cost, $5,000 to $18,000.
Lowe said he at times uses a rebreather system. He said rebreathers remove exhaled carbon dioxide from the recycled gases a diver is breathing, and add oxygen and other gases from the diver's cylinder.
Lowe said his rebreather, called "semi-closed," is the type that recycles the gases he is breathing and expels some as bubbles on only on one of every six of his exhalations. He said a 12-hour training course is required to be certified to use semi-closed rebreathers.
A conventional scuba system allows divers to stay underwater from 30 minutes to an hour, Lowe said, but his rebreather extends the bottom time to as much as two hours. In addition, he said, diving with a rebreather allows use of a lighter cylinder.
McGinnis said she has worked at Thunder Reef for 18 years, and Harris' death was the first serious accident at the shop.
John Branton covers crime and law enforcement for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-759-8012 or john.branton@columbian.com.
D.
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/12242005news81326.cfm
Asphyxia led to scuba diver's death
Saturday, December 24, 2005
By JOHN BRANTON, Columbian staff writer
A scuba diver who was found dead in the pool at Thunder Reef Divers on Monday ran out of air while using a rebreather, a highly technical device that allows divers to breathe the gases in their equipment over and over.
Harvey L. Harris, 51, died of accidental drowning due to asphyxia, Don Phillips, an investigator for the Clark County medical examiner, said Friday.
If a rebreathing system isn't working properly, the diver can breathe too much carbon dioxide and too little oxygen, lose consciousness and drown, Phillips said.
Two experienced scuba divers told The Columbian that it is the first such fatal accident they had heard of.
"For a rebreather user to go unconscious in a swimming pool, I've never heard of it happening," said Steve Lowe, owner of Steve's Scuba Center in Milwaukie, Ore. "That's just a one-in-a-million type of a situation, if that."
Harris, who lived in Wilder, Idaho, west of Boise, was an advanced diver certified in the use of his rebreather, said Nikki McGinnis, manager of Thunder Reef Divers at 12104 N.E. Highway 99 in Salmon Creek.
"He dove solo with his rebreather in the ocean all the time," McGinnis said.
On Monday afternoon, Harris was found unresponsive and in a sitting position, wearing his scuba gear, on the bottom of the shop's pool.
"It was as if he just fell asleep," McGinnis said Friday. "It's really sad. It's just a horrible series of events."
Brad Lundberg, a Thunder Reef employee, jumped into the 10-foot-deep pool and pulled Harris to the surface. Lundberg and McGinnis performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation but couldn't revive Harris, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
McGinnis said Harris was an occasional customer who had gone diving the day before in the Tacoma area. On Monday, he stopped by Thunder Reef to get his gas cylinder refilled.
Harris was waiting for a Thunder Reef employee who is a trained gas blender to return to the store, McGinnis said. Since Harris still had some gases in his cylinder, he decided to use it up with his rebreather in the shop's pool for practice.
Harris was alone in the pool, which Thunder Reef allows in the case of highly experienced divers, McGinnis said.
Rebreathers like the one Harris had been using were developed by the military and are used by Navy SEAL units.
Rebreathers can allow divers to stay underwater longer than conventional scuba gear, divers said.
Some types release no gas bubbles when a diver exhales, which can have advantages in military operations.
Rebreathers also have advantages for undersea photographers because released bubbles can frighten away fish the divers are trying to shoot.
Lowe, a diver for 40 years and a scuba instructor for 30, said few divers use rebreathers, in part because of their cost, $5,000 to $18,000.
Lowe said he at times uses a rebreather system. He said rebreathers remove exhaled carbon dioxide from the recycled gases a diver is breathing, and add oxygen and other gases from the diver's cylinder.
Lowe said his rebreather, called "semi-closed," is the type that recycles the gases he is breathing and expels some as bubbles on only on one of every six of his exhalations. He said a 12-hour training course is required to be certified to use semi-closed rebreathers.
A conventional scuba system allows divers to stay underwater from 30 minutes to an hour, Lowe said, but his rebreather extends the bottom time to as much as two hours. In addition, he said, diving with a rebreather allows use of a lighter cylinder.
McGinnis said she has worked at Thunder Reef for 18 years, and Harris' death was the first serious accident at the shop.
John Branton covers crime and law enforcement for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-759-8012 or john.branton@columbian.com.
