Dive Accident Causes

[ClarkKent]

Hi Everyone,

My goal in starting this thread is to learn from others experiences and to bring attention to the risks of diving that do not primarily involve the physics and chemistry of diving (not the primary cause).

I have been lurking on the board for quite some time and have noticed a common trend on most of the "accident" threads, people are quick to assume (not always wrong nor right) that the divers involved made a mistake in some manner or equipment malfunctioned.

My question is how many accidents have you been involved in that were caused by a new or pre-existing medical condition?

There are far too many conditions to list that could lead to a distressed diver thus leading to a DCS situation and vary greatly by age, but to name a few : AMI (Heart Attack), CVA/TIA (Stroke), Valvular Heart Disease, Arrhythmias (A heart that beats in a abnormal rate/rhythm), Syncope (Temporary Loss of Consciousness) and seizures.

Although in a perfect world each diver should be medically fit / cleared to dive, this is simply not the case. In my line of work (Advanced Life Support Paramedic) I see otherwise healthy people suffering from many of the above conditions without any or very few subtle warning signs that go un-diagnosed all the time.

Using this thread as an example:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ac...-virginia-beach-diver-critical-condition.html

Some people have eluded to the diver possibly being unconscious underwater which immediately leads me to think outside the box and not immediately jump to the conclusion that conditions, equipment or diver error were the primary cause. Given the fact the patient is 65y/o a multitude of differential diagnosies jump to mind. In this case I'm certain DCS played a role, it was not necessarily the primary cause.

I have responded to several Diving Accidents over the years and in my experience each one appeared to be a result of a medical condition complicated by DCS.

I am going to be taking the PADI Recue Diver course this summer and would like to hear about peoples experiences and the conditions surrounding them.

________________________________________
PADI AOW
Advanced Lifesupport Paramedic
Basic / Advanced Cardiac Life Support Instructor

 

[Gary D.]

The one's I have been involved with have been the result of medical conditions. It was the failure of the gray matter to produce what it should have and sending out a Time Too Be Stupid signal instead.

 

[flots am]

My question is how many accidents have you been involved in that were caused by a new or pre-existing medical condition?

I'm not a PSD diver but have done a number of rescues, and every single one was caused by poor judgement and/or not following training, on the part of a diver or dive professional.

This isn't to say that people don't die from medical problems, but from where I sit, stupidity is far ahead of biology in magnitude of risk.

Flots.

 

[vablackwater]

Great article from a few years back -

Watery Saves

"Inadequate SCUBA skills may be the leading cause of public safety diver accidents. In many cases, a problem developed that the diver was unable to solve due to a low basic skill level. In most cases, divers had received either insufficient or non-existent SCUBA skills refresher training after initial certification. Even experienced divers and instructors broke many basic safety rules and made mistakes that were difficult for them to solve."

 

[Tacman55]

There have been a couple of incidents where colleagues of mine were present during a diving fatality that was a direct result of what was believed to be a pre-existing medical condition. In each case the diver in question was over 50yoa and was in a high stress situation at the time of the incident and it was believed post mortem to have been the result of stress induced cardiac event.

The majority of incidents I have personally witnessed or been involved with on some level were a direct result of a lack of(or abondonment of) basic scuba skills or one diving outside of their training and limits....

As an instructor I am a stickler for pre-dive checks, rigid procedures and training. On a recent team training evolution I had one of my divers report to me during a pre-dive gear up that his redundant second stage would breath on inhalation but not manually purge. It was found that the lever was out of adjustment and was replaced with a functioning unit prior to the dive. This was found because our divers are trained to both breath and purge their regulators all while visualizing their guages to ensure their valves are on all as a part of their pre-dive procedures. In the event of an out of gas emergency this diver would have doffed his full face mask and switched to his redundant air supply and if he did not have the breath to purge the water from the regulator very well may have been a drowning victim before his back up diver could reach him.

Safety in diving starts with the simplest of things. How many times have you seen a diver leave a tank standing, wear a mask on their forehead or fail to signal ok or immediately inflate their BCD at the surface ?? Sometimes these errors are made by Instructors themselves. Divers do as they are taught and as their fellow divers do. It seems trivial to harp on such things but when someone surfaces with their mask on their forehead and gives no signal... do we know for a fact they are having an emergency or do we pause in wonder for a moment then respond?? In emergencies time is something we don't have enough of to waste.

Dive Safe,

JG