Who's right?

[cocoajoe]

Just finished Last Dive by B. Chowdhbury. Primarily, it tells the story of the Rouse's Chris and Chrissy that died in 1992 from diving what was still unidentified (at the time) German U boat....later ID'd as the U 869 by Chatterton.

The author states that Chatterton demanded that the CG rescue diver take both Chris who was dead at that point (taking appx. 20 extra minutes) instead of taking Chrissy who was alive at that point.

Kurston (author Shadow Divers) says the oposite...Chatterton wanted rescue diver to take Chrissy and leave Chris which would have saved time.

In the end, it may have not made much difference due to the fact that the only recompression chamber capable of taking a diver down past 165' was in Florida.

I do find the difference intriguing. Does anyone have any additional info?

[Beowulf]

The Last Dive's Chrissy Rouse -- would he have survived today?

[Akimbo]

…In the end, it may have not made much difference due to the fact that the only recompression chamber capable of taking a diver down past 165' was in Florida…

I am not an east coast guy, but hard to believe. As a minimum, you forgot Duke University in Durham where some of the deepest simulated dives in the world have been made. I am pretty sure the Navy still has systems capable of a Table 6 at the Submarine school in Connecticut.

As far as who is right, ask the source himself: John Chatterton | Facebook

[cocoajoe]

Thanks, I will. And as far as Florida being the only location in 1992, I took the authors (B. Chowdhbury) word for it.

[cocoajoe]

Don't do hardly ant FB...know this sounds stupid but how do you ask a question?

Thanks

[Akimbo]

The Last Dive's Chrissy Rouse -- would he have survived today?

Based on the account in Shadow Divers, my educated guess is unlikely even if there was a chamber onboard the Seeker. I have never treated an explosive decompression and there is very little case history. I have seen photos of goat and pig autopsies from the Experimental Diving Unit when it was in Washington and the tissue damage was widely distributed and severe.

[cocoajoe]

Thanks and you're probably right.

"The sad truth lay in the autopsy. When the doctors removed Chrissy's heart and then oped it underwater, the ventricles releasted foam not blood. There were simply too many nitrogen bubbles that Chrissy's body had to eleminate before foam formed in the heart".

[Akimbo]

Unfortunately, postmortem autopsies of divers expired at depth yield useless results in this regard. Dissolved gasses aren’t removed from a corpse without barotrauma even on a super slow saturation decompression. There would be no way to know what damage and residual gas was a remnant from the initial exposure and what was contributed by the treatment exposure and subsequent loss of all circulation.

A Table 6 treatment from an explosive decompression from 230' would probably be inadequate in any case. Even though most treatment chamber pressure vessels for diving accidents are rated at ~330', the environmental control systems aren’t up to the task below 165'. Very few chambers even have treatment gasses other than pure oxygen.

[roturner]

I do find the difference intriguing. Does anyone have any additional info?

You can PM "Chatterton". he's a member on Scubaboard, although I don't know how often he lurks around.

From my reading of the incident I don't think the outcome could have been any different regardless of which decisions were made. It didn't sound to me like Chrissy "almost made it".

R..