over weighting death

[piikki]

Panicing on the surface, with an inflated BC and head well above water is not fatal.

Breathing water can be, as can panic coupled with various medical conditions, however panic itself is not fatal.

Terry

I would have to disagree with you. It is extremely rare but you can die as a result of panic/fear, and you do not even need to have pre-existing condition/s (as a result of arrythmia, say).

I am not advocating assuming that panicking people will drop dead, and something silly instead of the usual maneuvers should be done. Obviously in this case 'something' killed the victim, apparently on surface (?) before anything could be done/waited out.

 

[TheRedHead]

But of it fails and I cant kick the person away and start to get pulled down, rest assured, I WILL go to that last resort..
Did you see "The Guardian"? Love that elbow and know it works

Keep your reg in your mouth. You don't need to ask "Diver, diver are you okay?" when they are thrashing around like maniacs. I just think you want to get physical.

 

[Tigerman]

Keep your reg in your mouth. You don't need to ask "Diver, diver are you okay?" when they are thrashing around like maniacs. I just think you want to get physical.

Oh but I do want to get physical, just not in the violent way ...
Really tho, If youve failed recovering someone in panic and had them attack you, on dry land or not, you find that the more violent approach can be a nice way to shift their focus or make them very calm. I dont say its the preferred approach, nor that its without risk (as ive stated in the original post on that topic), but it could be what needs to be done..

 

[hex92]

This lady panicked that is what killed her. In my TDI Advanced Wreck diving manual there is a bit a text that all divers should remember:

What makes the difference between a survivor and a statistic?

Survivors don't panic.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

The assumption here is that this poor woman panicked and that contributed to her death. Someone who inadvertantly sucks in seawater and goes into laryngeal spasm, or who has an arrhythmia or heart attack, will began thrashing and fighting for air. This is, technically, panic, but it really can be called another word: dying. A person shot in the chest will panic as they die, but panic here is natural and does not contribute to the death. It is a natural consequence of our impending demise.

If you can't get a breath, and have no foseeable way of ever getting one again, you will panic, I guarantee it. One of the hallmark signs of a heart attack is the fear you see in the person's eyes. By it's very nature, impending death in an awake person can induce panic.

In this case, we don't have enough info to solve the chicken-or-the-egg question: did she have some non-lethal event, panic and drown, or a lethal event which will make anyone, no matter how strong and well-trained, panic?

Was the feeling of too much weight really a cardiac event?

When people die of cardiac events immediately, even a post-mortem examination may not reveal the answer, as not enough time has elapsed for pathologic changes to occur.

So, since we may never know, we should give a fellow diver the benefit of the doubt and say she died from something beyond her control, not because she had an irrational panic attack.

 

[Tigerman]

Saying that everyone thats dying will panic is a gross exaguration and simply not true.
Saying that someone that lose the ability to breathe is guaranteed to panic is not true either...

 

[Thalassamania]

Saying that everyone thats dying will panic is a gross exaguration and simply not true.
Saying that someone that lose the ability to breathe is guaranteed to panic is not true either...

Your right, it does not jibe with the "near death" stories you hear of relaxation, comfort and the tunnel of light.

 

[Tigerman]

Your right, it does not jibe with the "near death" stories you hear of relaxation, comfort and the tunnel of light.

Nor with my own first hand experiences with said experiences and dying people..

 

[DocWong]

I dove with the Oceans Divers outfit last week and they were top notch.

At first the captain and his mate were at first pretty alarmed at my gear, that I was slinging an Al 80 along with my single tank back gas, all on 32% nitrox. It took a little explaining that I wasn't planning on going into the engine room to run out of gas to kill myself, that I was just being extra conservative and breathing off my stage and using my back gas as a redundant backup.

After the first dive, all was well and they relaxed as it seemed that I wasn't a total idiot! My experience with Ocean Divers is that they are professional and competent.

Here's a video of me going thru a swimthru a couple of days later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7joa6HhIiLc

 

[Thalassamania]

I dove with the Oceans Divers outfit last week and they were top notch.

I've always found them to do an excellent job.