Diver dies at Molokai on Maui dive boat

[KevinNM]

Somewhat fancier than the cheapest AEDs can also function as a limited ekg, I know the local mountain rescue group here uses one like that. It's not a full 12 lead, but it provides useful data for a skilled user. This assumes you have someone who is qualified to interpret it, which certainly isn't covered in scuba courses.

 

[whysocold]

The Lahaina Divers mentions that this hammerhead diving is the most advanced diving & ask divers to call to see if they are qualified for undertaking such diving adventure.

Hammerhead Diving | Maui Advanced Diving

Last I remember, the qualification is 25 dives.

 

[whysocold]

Hopefully, the Coast Guard will conduct a thorough review. I tend to trust them.

Are Coast Guard records public?

 

[whysocold]

When I left Maui in 2008, LD was just starting their weekly guaranteed Molokai trips. My first thought was "well that is about the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time." The LD boats are a little bigger than EH, but it's still a rough crossing.

In Hawaii, as the day gets later, the seas come up. Just because it was possible in the AM, doesn't mean they'll be able to get back out in the PM. So leaving a diver out there to go back in an emergency is basically abandoning that diver for the next 24 hours. I could have a deco diver tell me personally to leave them behind in an emergency and I still wouldn't do it. First rule of rescues: don't make more victims.

10-12 foot seas sound high for Molokai. Should the dive boat have been out at all in those conditions?

 

[Dan]

Last I remember, the qualification is 25 dives.

That's not good enough.

Also, with the 10-12' waves, they should have canceled the dives. It was fortunate that no more diver was in trouble going back to the boat at that condition.

Finding divers got motion sickness is a good telltale sign that the sea condition was rough.

 

[whysocold]

Still though, couldn't USCG call for an inter-armed service medevac (Navy helo) to cover for a litter urgent dive casualty?

That was my first question.

Also, with the fishing boat present, wouldn't there be an expectation of assistance from their boat due to the emergency?

 

[sea_ledford]

You mentioned one thing that could be done in the future - stop guaranteeing passage like a bus service if place and time of year is unsuited/often unsafe for it. If you take passengers out Come Hell or High Water you might get both. OP reported rough seas and seasickness a possible factor.

Yes, that was my concern as well.

10-12 foot seas sound high for Molokai. Should the dive boat have been out at all in those conditions?

Depends on the wave period. 10-12 sounds huge, but if it is a 15-20 second period those are just big rollers and it won't feel all that rough. In the Gulf of Mexico, we have like a 6 second period, and 10-12 will break boats. I used to dive on the north shore of Maui in 8-10 all the time with no problems.

FYI
The Coast Guard Air Station at Barbers Point Oahu should have been responding with a MH-65 Dolphin Recovery Helicopter, with ETA of 40 minutes to the approximate dive site around Molokai or rendezvous with the diveboat (distance is roughly 80 nautical miles from Barbers Point Oahu).

They'll also have a 30 minute window for wheels up once they get the call. At least that is the SOP for the Gulf Coast. So you are still looking at 1 hour minimum to get there. With other active incidents going on they probably would have made a triage call to not spend 2-3 hours to go pick up a person that is unlikely to survive anyway.

-Chris

 

[CuzzA]

That was my first question.

Also, with the fishing boat present, wouldn't there be an expectation of assistance from their boat due to the emergency?

Sorry, but I have to laugh and can't resist responding to this...

Are you suggesting the crew should have moved an unconscious non breathing victim, whom likely was already dead with no chance of being revived, from one vessel to another vessel in 10-12 foot seas?

That's a good way to create more victims or worse, sink both boats.

There's some serious Monday Morning Armchair quarterbacking going on here.

From all accounts, CPR was rendered. O2 was provided. The victim unfortunately died of a serious medical or serious dive related injury and barring a chamber or surgical room on the boat, there was nothing that was going to change the outcome.

People die. Even in the hands of the most qualified doctors. We have one account that the medical aid being rendered wasn't as good as what a customer could provide and so the customer provided it. Maybe the crew and staff new the victim was simply dead and an additional hour or so of CPR was futile. Maybe the crew was terrible at providing CPR, it appears CPR was still performed.

You know, I have my pro cert. for CPR w/ AED and there is no doubt CPR can save a life. Every diver should know how to do it, especially dive staff. But we also have to use some common sense here. Yes, there's some miraculous stories of survival from CPR. There's also the tons of stories you never hear about where the victim was revived only to be incapacitated and in a persistent vegetative state. I imagine shortly after the victim turned blue, that was it.

 

[sea_ledford]

That was my first question.

Also, with the fishing boat present, wouldn't there be an expectation of assistance from their boat due to the emergency?

And what would they have done? Transfer the patient to a fishing boat with completely untrained crew that might max out at 10 knots?

There seems to be an underlying theme in these posts that something else could have/should have happened to save the guys life. Could the crew have handled it better? Possibly, I wasn't there. But if the original post on TA is accurate then, yes they should have done something different, not that I think that would have changed the result. But still, hospital care is a minimum of 2 hours away under the most ideal circumstances, and probably more like 3-4. If you are 3 hours from a hospital and doing CPR it's not going to be a good outcome.

-Chris

 

[whysocold]

And what would they have done? Transfer the patient to a fishing boat with completely untrained crew that might max out at 10 knots?

The fishing boat could pick up the tech divers, couldn't it?