Diver death in Mabini Batangas Philippines

[chillyinCanada]

Bryan, I feel your pain. Thanks for your efforts here.

I agree with Ayisha's speculation on the valve/air. Further though, it seems the victim may have reached the surface and been intending to check the valve on her tank, which is why her bcd is partly removed and mask on her forehead. But in my scenario, why is her bcd completely empty? Is that part of what happened to her at depth? She couldn't add air to her bcd and couldn't get a breath? Hmm, now I'm starting to question my own theory. Why would the weights have pulled her back down if she'd made it to the surface and managed to remain bouyant enough to start to get out of her bcd? Perhaps she had air in her bcd and accidentally let it out as she was doffing? I'm missing something in my thought process but it's very late here.

Was she wearing a wetsuit of any kind?

 

[Kevrumbo]

That's a plausible scenario above. . .

I would only add that she could have lost consciousness (Rule Out AGE due to rapid ascent) before establishing positive surface buoyancy -that is, she went unconscious before inflating BCD and dropping weights- and then as consequence sank & descended back down to depth.

 

[chillyinCanada]

If indeed, she did have blood or bloody froth coming from her nose/mouth, could she have had a moment or two at the surface before the arterial gas embolism struck her?

EDIT: Kevrumbo, I was typing as you were posting.

 

[BryanDP]

Hello all - thank you so much for taking the time to think and talk about this. Some delays in replying since I'm attending her wake at the moment.

GoPro video of that dive will be provided by the instructor tomorrow.

Yes, she was wearing a 3 mil full wetsuit

Autopsy report will be out in 7 days - not too much hope there as the investigating officer/medical team is not familiar with diving related accidents.

Not trying to debunk the theory that she headed up because she felt out of air (just thinking out loud here, please forgive) - but from >25 meters, I think it would have taken shorter time/less effort to grab someone and get air from that person.

Really clueless about why there's proof she's taking her BCD off. Since it was a boat dive, was the boat actually there and she was trying to remove it for the boatman to pull up? Instructor said impossible and if that happened the boatman would have found a way to get her back and would have told him so - said there's also another person on the boat, a surface swimmer.

Nothing's impossible at this point really. It's sad that the person who can really tell us what happened is gone.

Thanks again everyone for your time. Everyone down here appreciates it big time.

 

[Kevrumbo]

If indeed, she did have blood or bloody froth coming from her nose/mouth, could she have had a moment or two at the surface before the arterial gas embolism struck her?

Yes, something like that. Autopsy would have to show some gross blockage and/or rupture of a blood vessel, especially one supplying the brain. Primary cause of death is Drowning, Rule Out DCS, AGE, exertion Hypercapnia as secondary contributing or precipitating cause.

 

[BryanDP]

Sorry, forgot to add that yes, a little (trickle?) coagulated blood from her eyes, nose and mouth. Could have been more, much may have been softened by her being under for almost 24 hours.

Frustrating that the autopsy report may not cover blocked blood vessels but I'll get in touch with the doc who examined her remains and ask if that was checked.

 

[Pao]

The partially open tank valve sounds like a promising lead. The rental reg, I presume, would be an unbalanced piston model? Has anyone tried breathing it with the same tank valve position?

 

[deepbluekermit]

Just my two cents from an average diver, she probably experienced narcosis? or had problems equalizing will descending until she reached the point that shes feeling uneasy already. Since it was an advance certification group dive, she might be having thoughts of not ruining that dive and decided not to abort. I'm assuming she must be well aware of what she was experiencing already. Since she was an experienced diver, she knew that the only way to ease her current condition would be to ascend rapidly without getting help from her dive buddy. But due to the rapid ascend, her lungs began to be compromised, she probably reached the surface, this explains the mask on her forehead. She had difficulty breathing and decided to remove the BCD to ease her breathing, unfortunately due to panic and struggle to get enough air, she was not able to remove her weight belt, thus allowing her to drown. Thats why she was found just a few meters from the site. - just an average diver's opinion.

 

[Karl_PH]

Just to add a few thoughts here on this whole event, I'd normally be in Anilao at weekends but specifically didn't go this weekend as the forecast was terrible and just not suitable for diving, it turned out to be better conditions that the original forecast but it seems it was far from ideal.

Most modern vales have 2.5-3 turns to be fully open, 2.5 turns is either fully open or half a turn off, either way it should be an issue - unless it was a very old style valves with more turns?

Not wanting to point fingers here but as someone who has witnessed a whole series of near miss accidents here in the Philippines, and as a result often wondered how we don't see more accidents; I can't help but think these kinds of accidents could so easily be avoided. If you just looks at the basic MINIMUM standards for PADI (an agency everyone accuses of having woefully short minimum standards) you will find some interesting points, these are the standard for the deep dive:

2. Directly supervise all student divers. Position yourself
so that you or a certified assistant can make immediate
physical contact with and render assistance to divers.
Continually observe divers with only the brief, periodic
interruptions needed to lead the dive and to provide
assistance to individual divers.

3. Maximum ratio is 8:1. Do not increase this ratio with
the use of certified assistants. If conditions affect your
ability to directly observe and respond to divers, reduce
ratios.

Just to point out certified assistants are certified DMs (ie not DMCs and certainly not Certified Divers). It's been a while since I left the recreational dive teaching industry but I certainly had it hammered into me from day 1 that you should be in control of your students at all times, especially for sudden ascents, and your main responsibility as the instructor is to ensure safety.

Divers can panic at any level, it's not that uncommon on technical courses and even in tech CCR classes with very experienced divers. The big difference for is most people would realise that enter the water with more than 2-3 students at a time expecting to somehow be in control the situation.

This in't at all intended as a dig at an instructor who has clearly been through a tragic event themselves, it is also likely there are a lot of missing facts here - but seriously, this should be a BIG wake-up call to a lot of people teaching here to use a bit of common sense and not be afraid to call or adjust dives BEFORE getting into the water.

This seems to be a very sad event where a young girl has lost her life in an accident which probably wouldn't have happened if either of the two minimum standards above had just been followed, or even better if people realise minimum standards are exactly that, minimum, not target standards.

 

[Ed Palma]

I went to check my tanks to see how many turns it took to open. On hand I had 3 thermo valves (similar to what you usually find in Anilao) and 2 old dacor valves. The Dacors took 2 1/2 turns as well as 1 Thermo. The other 2 Thermos took 3 1/2 turns. Given that it took 2 1/2 turns to shut off her valve, I'm not too sure gas flow was the major precipitating factor. She was able to do 16 min descending to 29m with 3 min at depth for a total of 19 min without indicating any issues it seems.

Her dive history includes challenging (and relatively deep dives) such as Canyons and some of the wrecks in Subic, so this particular dive wasn't the first time she was exposed to possible narcosis.

8lbs of weight on her belt doesn't seem overly excessive.

The rapid ascent was most likely contributory to her demise. My initial thought was unfamiliarity with rented gear might have led her to inadvertently press the inflator in lieu of venting, however the eye witness accounts indicate that she was actively swimming upwards.

150 bar of air and functioning gear. What would make you want to swim up and apparently try to remove your gear?