Ohio Student Fatality

[wtcreaux]

Is that a general rule?

No, depends upon each state's rules/laws.....I flew for 10 years in LA (the state, 1990s).....the only way we could call it was obvious death (decapitation, rigor mortis, etc)....during this same time, Michigan was able to call it if the patient had sustained blunt force trauma and was pulseless on air crew's arrival (IIRC, based off a 10-year study in MI that showed a ZERO survival rate)......Also depends upon the flight crew composition - we were flight nurse and flight medic, Houston (TX) LifeFlight flies flight nurse and flight doc (at least in the 90s) which allowed them (at least the doc) to call it on-scene......

 

[LoonDiver]

If he really did "lose consciousness" at the surface, I'm wondering if it was some medical event. Still, if he could call for help at the surface, it does make you wonder why he didn't make himself positively buoyant. I gather from reading other incidents, that happens often. Very sad.

 

[mala]

Another death.. a diver makes it to the surface; indicates there is a problem and then sinks to the bottom. And to think that people still argue that ditchable lead is optional....Example number 5,003 where ditching lead may have been of some benefit.

quicker to press the inflator button.

ditchable lead tends to ditch itself when you dont want.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

quicker to press the inflator button.

ditchable lead tends to ditch itself when you dont want.

Sure it is, but some people would rather not bet their life on pressing buttons and all the things connected to those buttons. I can think of a dozen reasons why "pressing the button" may not work.

 

[mala]

Sure it is, but some people would rather not bet their life on pressing buttons and all the things connected to those buttons. I can think of a dozen reasons why "pressing the button" may not work.

tell us why we shouldnt use the bouyancy device to make us bouyant.

 

[Bob DBF]

Another death.. a diver makes it to the surface; indicates there is a problem and then sinks to the bottom. And to think that people still argue that ditchable lead is optional....Example number 5,003 where ditching lead may have been of some benefit.

Ya hafta ditch the weight for it to work, we have Abalone divers (free divers) on the North coast of Cal and the saying is "they always die with their belts on".

Originally Posted by mala
quicker to press the inflator button.ditchable lead tends to ditch itself when you dont want.

I've been diving since '63 with a weight belt and I have yet to have one ditch itself. I have diched my weight belt twice, once in the '60's when my Mae West failed and I needed surface flotation, the second was in the '90's while Abalone diving and entangled in kelp to avoid being grouped with the people mentioned above. Oh, by the way an inflator button does no good if you are OOA or the tank valve is closed.

I dump my weightbelt whenever I get out of the water on a shore dive. The practice looks stupid, and I wear out weightbelts sooner than I should, but I can drop it in my sleep if I wanted to.


Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

I've been diving since '63 with a weight belt and I have yet to have one ditch itself.

I have twice seen some recently trained diver unintentionally drop his belt. Most recently only 2 weeks ago on a 95 ft deep AOW only wreck dive (yes you read that correctly) That belt came off at about 45 ft and darn near missed a diver who was already below. After the near miss the diver below retrieved the belt from the sand and rightly made a point about it back on the boat.

Don't get me wrong, fully agree you need some balast you can drop. But you also should know how to wear and use it correctly.

---------- Post Merged at 07:34 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 07:03 PM ----------

tell us why we shouldnt use the bouyancy device to make us bouyant.

I have twice needed to close down a post underwater (I dive doubles). Both of these meant I lost use of my inflator hose. The button didn't work any more. Oral inflation at the surface is not as easy as you think. If I am out of breath or in trouble, I'm not convinced I could do it.

 

[John_B]

With a balanced rig, even if a diver lost their ditchable ballast it's only the difference between a full and empty tank.

 

[thisguy]

Alot of assumptions here. This was my uncle and I was his dive partner for this dive. I watched him die in front of my eyes. It was an advanced class of 5 including the instructor.

 

[LoonDiver]

Thisguy, I am so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine how hard this must be.
Please don't take the discussion in this thread personally. I think divers try to make sense of a tragedy like this and so they try to guess what might have happened and analyze it as a way to learn from it.
Again, I am so sorry.