Feb 19 2017 Cozumel diving fatality

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Why would anyone other than myself be responsible for me choosing to dive?
I choose my equipment. I decide to swim underwater, how deep and how long.
If I choose to do something stupid why would anyone else be liable?
 
As far as signaling OK, wasn't it reported that Rob Stewart signaled that he was OK to the boat crew after he and the other diver surfaced? Then a possible problem with the other diver had the people on the boat attending to him. Once that was dealt with, Stewart had already gone under water and at some point died.
 
If this problem happens to me in the future, I hope this is a good lesson for me to skip the dive, stay on the boat and rent a BCD with working inflator for the next dive.
 
As far as signaling OK, wasn't it reported that Rob Stewart signaled that he was OK to the boat crew after he and the other diver surfaced? Then a possible problem with the other diver had the people on the boat attending to him. Once that was dealt with, Stewart had already gone under water and at some point died.


It is hard enough to follow the details of each of these unfortunate events without you mixing threads.:)
 
Why would anyone other than myself be responsible for me choosing to dive?
I choose my equipment. I decide to swim underwater, how deep and how long.
If I choose to do something stupid why would anyone else be liable?
Because your family will hire a lawyer and sue the Dive Operator for you doing something stupid .....just say'n
 
If this problem happens to me in the future, I hope this is a good lesson for me to skip the dive, stay on the boat and rent a BCD with working inflator for the next dive.
Wouldn't it be better to stay capable of managing your BC by breath, in case of an underwater failure.
 
Good afternoon. I hate that this is my first post on scubaboard...First of all or our thoughts and prayers go out to Tammy and her family. This was definitely one of the hardest things we have ever been a part of.
My wife and I were on the boat with Tammy. We were diving with another DM but after reading a lot of speculation on whether or not she removed the power inflator hose or if it failed I wanted to comment on one thing. The hose/bcd connection was not connected until we reached the dive site. At that point, she and the DM identified that the connection on the power inflator hose was not the same size as the connection on the BCD. Her only option was to inflate manually for the dive. We parted ways at the start of the dive so I don't want to speculate from there. Another reason I wanted to comment is to encourage everyone who reads this. If you don't feel good, don't go....No matter what!! I believe we are all responsible for making that decision before every single dive!
That would explain why my husband was not able connect her hose to the BC when we found her.
After 164 posts, I am going to try to list what is known about this case, replying primarily on the several people who posted eyewitness accounts. Please correct any misinformation.

1. The victim was a very experienced diver with many dives around the world.
2. The victim was using a mixture of personal and rental equipment, and there was a mismatch with the inflator hose system. [Speculation: her BCD was equipped with an inline alternate air source, but the rental BCD included a conventional inflator hose. You cannot use a conventional inflator hose with an inline alternate air source.]
3. The victim agreed to use the system for the dive, using oral inflation to achieve buoyancy.
4. During the dive, the victim indicated she was not feeling well and wished to end the dive.
5. The DM accompanied her for part of the ascent, but she had no assigned buddy for the ascent, and no one saw her reach the surface.
6. She was later found deceased on the reef by another couple.
7. The couple that found her later heard that she had suffered a stroke.
.

I read in the translated news article that is in an earlier post that she had a heart attack or stroke. The word used was infarct, that is why I mentioned that.
 
Why would anyone other than myself be responsible for me choosing to dive?
I choose my equipment. I decide to swim underwater, how deep and how long.
If I choose to do something stupid why would anyone else be liable?
You might not be properly informed, qualified to judge or be pressured to make the dive.

For example, I took a group to cozumel. While there we were joined by a diver who really wanted to do some deep swim through. So there was pressure on everyone to do that dive. The weaker member of the group had no opinion. They did not know what the risks were. If painted in a positive light they would have done it. In the case of an accident happening to one of those divers who would be responsible? Them, uninformed and somewhat dupped, me for falsely reassuring them or the keen diver that wanted to do it?
 
I was just contacted by a member of the dive group who does not wish to participate openly in this thread. This is what I learned.

1. The diver agreed before the dive to use the inflator manually.
2. The diver did not appear to have a problem with that during the dive.
3. When the diver decided to go to the surface, she did not seem to be in distress. The diver who contacted me did not see her signal prior to the ascent, but the assumption was that she had reached the 700 PSI, the pressure at which the first low on air diver was supposed to ascend according to the pre-dive briefing.
4. The DM sent up a DSMB, showed her how to work the reel, and she ascended alone.
5. She did not appear to be in distress during that ascent, which started from a relatively shallow depth.
6. The person who contacted me did not watch her the whole time, but believes she did not take enough time on ascent to do a full safety stop.
7. The person who contacted me saw her reach the surface safely, and she did not appear to be having any trouble there.

I was also contacted by someone else who had information he was not at liberty to disclose. Nothing in that contact disagrees with what I just wrote.

From what I have been told and from what I read on this thread, the inflator hose had nothing to do with this accident. IMO, continuing to discuss it just gets in the way of a discussion on what really happened.
 
Wouldn't it be better to stay capable of managing your BC by breath, in case of an underwater failure.

Good idea. I'll add this step in the checkout dive list. This is the first time I read it happened that led to a death in my 12 years of diving. So, I have never considered to practice such manual buoyancy control.

My first thought is if something is not going to plan, it's not a good sign to continue the dive. Anxiety will take over my thought process. I'd strart thinking, this is not my day to dive, what else could go wrong? So, it much easier to cancel the dive, take a deep breath, calm myself down & do it right on the next dive.

It would be much easier for the party involved to rescue me if I have a heart attack/ stroke on the boat, instead of during the dive with no buddy to rescue me.
 
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