Fatality Cabo San Lucas March 3

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decompression

Instructor...seriously...
Scuba Instructor
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Location
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CALGARY — A Calgary woman died Saturday while scuba diving in Mexico, and her family says police are investigating the tanks and equipment involved.
Ronda Cross was scuba diving with her cousin in Cabo San Lucas when she was overcome by carbon monoxide in the scuba tanks, according to a statement issued by her father-in-law, Dennis Cross.
Cross's husband, Colin, was golfing in Florida at the time.
"It is not certain how the CO entered the tanks, which were filled by the Sunshine Dive Shop in Cabo," the family's news release states. "Ronda was a very experienced diver, and the family is devastated by something that never should have happened."
The family says the dive shop was certified and should have been able to guarantee the air quality in the tanks.
The family is expressing concerns for other vacationers who use diving services in vacation areas and say divers who knew Ronda are "appalled by the apparent negligence.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald




Read more: Family blames Calgary woman's death in Mexico on faulty scuba equipment


So very sad and a reminder to not take your air for granted.
 
It is utterly unclear how anybody knows this was carbon monoxide. It may well have been, but how the family in another country KNOWS that's what killed her is not clear in the article at all.
 
Never let the facts F$&:mad: up a good story. (As they say.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
From a more detailed news report of this event: multiple divers complained of bad air and breathing difficulty (found after a 15-second Google search; emphases added):
By Bill Kaufmann ,Calgary Sun
First posted: Tuesday, March 06, 2012 05:37 PM MST | Updated:Tuesday, March 06, 2012 05:54 PM MST

The husband of Calgary's Ronda Cross, 41, who died in a scuba diving accident in Mexico on Saturday, March 3, 2012 is demanding answers from authorities. The experienced diver did not come out of the water off the coast of Cabo San Lucas after other divers complained of breathing problems with the supplied oxygen tanks. SUPPLIED PHOTO.
1297242152715_ORIGINAL.jpg
Family calling for answers after Calgary woman dies scuba diving in Mexico (from Calgary Sun)

The husband of a Calgary woman who died in a scuba diving accident in Mexico says he wants answers in the tragedy he insists never should have occurred.

On Saturday, Ronda Cross, 41, was scuba diving in about 23 metres of water off the coast of Cabo San Lucas’ El Chile beach when her cousin, Roxanne Amundson and the pair’s dive master emerged, complaining of trouble breathing, said Colin Cross.

“I was told there were problems right from the beginning — Roxanne had come up a couple of times saying she had problems breathing ... the dive master had to be helped onto the boat,” said Colin Cross, who was in Florida at the time.

But he said his wife, Ronda — a much more experienced diver with nearly 200 plunges under her belt — had gone deeper while her companions had been alerted to trouble.

“She was getting more and more toxic and not knowing it,” he said.
Three minutes after a warning was raised, his wife was dead, said a tearful Cross, 39, who’d dove with his wife all over the world.

“She was experienced, she knew what she was doing, which might have been fatal,” said Cross, adding Ronda had ventured further into the water than the survivors because she was more comfortable in the water.

“If I was with her, there probably would have been two fatalities.”

He said the family believes carbon monoxide contaminating the group’s oxygen tanks led to his wife’s death.

“I don’t want this to happen to anybody else ... this is such negligence,” said Cross, adding the only contact he’ll have with the dive shop “is through a lawyer.”

Their Mexican dive master had previously picked up oxygen tanks without incident from what Cross identified as the Sunshine Dive Shop in Cabo San Lucas, which he said provided the equipment Saturday.

A report in the Mexican online publication Sudcaliforniano stated the Calgarian’s cause of death was asphyxiation by drowning, as did a woman employed by the funeral home dealing with Cross’s body.

The publication also reported the incident was under police investigation.

Reached by phone, a staffer at Sunshine Dive and Charter said he knew nothing of the accident.

Quesnel, B.C. resident Amundson said she was still too shaken to describe Saturday’s tragedy but said Mexican police had seized oxygen tanks used by the group.

“They took our gear to La Paz to see what was inside the tanks,” said Amundson.

“Everything’s being handled just fine on this end.”

Cross’s body is expected to return to Calgary on Wednesday.

bill.kaufmann@sunmedia.ca twitter@SUNbillkaufmann
(The posting of this copyrighted news article is protected under the "Fair-use" doctrine of US copyright laws, which allow the re-use of copyrighted matter, without permission, for reasons such as teaching and criticism of issues related to public health and safety. Click here for a further discussion of the Fair-use doctrine)
 
Too bad. Mexico has gone to hell in a handbasket in the last few years. It's not that too complicated to figure out how the tanks had carbon monoxide in them. Several reasons could be found the way stuff is handled down there. Of course the dive shop will do everything that they can to get out of any damages. Hundred dollar bills go a long way to smooth things over in Mexico and all the way to the tip of South America. Mexico has enough problems anyway what's with the crap going on on the border and cruise ship passengers being robbed daily and they don't want any more bad publicity affecting the tourist industry. I would guess that they will cover this up with some corrupt official's denying that there is any cause for concern or liability to the diving business.
 
Jeez this is awful! My condolences to the family for their loss. I too am 41 and going diving this week in Curacao so methinks it will be a trip to the dive shop to buy a CO analyzer. We are hearing this story too often!
 
first of all, this is a very unfortunate event, my thoughts go out to the family. i am aware of the current events surrounding saturday's accident. the cause of death is not finalized, it is unfair to name the shop in mention. the shop has the highest standards for air fills, and fills tanks for more than 4 shops in the region, none of which have had a problem before or since the unfortunate event. which then leads to the equipment that was used, the equipment was NOT from the mentioned shop, it was part of the guides equipment. of which, the guide was NOT diving under the mentioned shops name
 
first of all, this is a very unfortunate event, my thoughts go out to the family. i am aware of the current events surrounding saturday's accident. the cause of death is not finalized, it is unfair to name the shop in mention. the shop has the highest standards for air fills, and fills tanks for more than 4 shops in the region, none of which have had a problem before or since the unfortunate event. which then leads to the equipment that was used, the equipment was NOT from the mentioned shop, it was part of the guides equipment. of which, the guide was NOT diving under the mentioned shops name

Cabo I see you have posted this same post on the two Calgary newspaper websites as well. Can you tell us where the tanks were filled and what are the "highest standards for air fills" this shop maintains?

Do they test their compressed air quality quarterly and run an inline CO monitor on the compressor?

Thank you.
 
We really cannot know if it was or was not CO poisoning unless a carboxyhemoglobin blood test can be done on the deceased, and/or the tank air can be tested. I really doubt that the local facilities are capable of doing either really, IMO - and also suspect that any evidence that might turn up will be hidden.

Jeez this is awful! My condolences to the family for their loss. I too am 41 and going diving this week in Curacao so methinks it will be a trip to the dive shop to buy a CO analyzer. We are hearing this story too often!
I get bored sometimes checking all of my tanks for CO when I never find anything, but I test the analyzer to make sure it's working (blow in it), and I check every tank wherever I dive. It's the only way to know, regardless of air source, records, reputation, etc. I also get excited when I find dangerous levels of CO in tanks, and I have.

first of all, this is a very unfortunate event, my thoughts go out to the family. i am aware of the current events surrounding saturday's accident. the cause of death is not finalized, it is unfair to name the shop in mention. the shop has the highest standards for air fills, and fills tanks for more than 4 shops in the region, none of which have had a problem before or since the unfortunate event. which then leads to the equipment that was used, the equipment was NOT from the mentioned shop, it was part of the guides equipment. of which, the guide was NOT diving under the mentioned shops name
I just have a hunch that there is not a CO monitor on any compressors in the state, nor a CO tank tester. Would I be wrong in that assumption...??
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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