How much of a factor is age in scuba deaths

[The Chairman]

You can have my fins when you pry my cold dead fingers... oh wait. That's the whole point!

I don't do much deep anymore. 130 is deep enough. It's not just age, it's skill and comfort.

 

[michael-fisch]

You can have my fins when you pry my cold dead fingers... oh wait. That's the whole point!

I don't do much deep anymore. 130 is deep enough. It's not just age, it's skill and comfort.

Remember Bill Rennaker's heart attack?
He had a heart attack in a cave, and slowly swam back to the entrance, breathing O2 from 9M. Used up all his own O2, had his buddy leave his O2 with Rennaker while the buddy exited and arranged for an ambulance. Several hours after EMS showed up, Rennaker exited and they whisked him off to the hospital.
After all the examinations at the hospital, the told him that he had had a heart attack, but due to the several hours of self inflicted hyperbaric O2 he had suffered no major tissure damage.

If he hadn't been cavediving and had not been as pigheaded as he was, the heart attack probably would have killed him.

Michael

 

[chillyinCanada]

While age may be a factor on occasion, I believe that a matrix of issues needs to be considered.

I am 69, but was a competitive distance runner between the ages of 35 and 60; never smoked, and consume a very balanced diet (my wife is a vegetarian, and that helps, but I do sneak me some Texas barbecue for business lunches).

I suffered a sciatic nerve attack that ended my running career, but after regaining most of the strength in the affected leg, still am very active in taking long walks whenever I can.

I take no prescription medications, and all my blood levels are well within tolerances.

Should I suffer a life-ending diving incident, I hope that my age is not the first indicator used as a contributing factor.

It will be, nonetheless.

 

[happy-diver]

When you look at BSAC's annual scuba accident reports, most fatalities (~2/3) are probably related to a medical problem in combination with the victim being alone in the water incapacitated. "Being alone" is not only intentional solo diving, but includes divers lost by inattentive buddies while having a problem, or divers feeling sick, leaving the group and returning to the boat alone. Faintness, low blood pressure, even a light heart attack... are no problem at the tennis court but are deadly under water without a good buddy. Exertion while entering or leaving the water can be more dangerous than the dive itself.
So I'd say yes such problems become more likely with age, but the risk can be mitigated by avoiding exertion and diving only with good buddies.

If this is the psychology you require to allay your fears and keep you in the water
well you just keep on keeping on but just try and enjoy your dives a little bit more

and read some different stuff

 

[chillyinCanada]

Frankly, I wouldn't mind to go like that. I know that would make things uncomfortble, unpleasant and possibly sad for others, but it would be fine by me.

 

[Storker]

Frankly, I wouldn't mind to go like that. I know that would make things uncomfortble, unpleasant and possibly sad for others, but it would be fine by me.

If the medical event immediately struck me unconscious, I might agree. If it merely incapacitated me so that I was aware that I was drowning, perhaps not so much.

I'd feel rather sorry for my buddy, though.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I've already experienced drowning in my own fluids up on land. I think it will be much more pleasant down below. I'm not seeking it but should it occur, may not fight too hard.

Besides, it's my old age that's gonna get me, right?

 

[Chidiver1]

You can have my fins when you pry my cold dead fingers... oh wait. That's the whole point!

I don't do much deep anymore. 130 is deep enough. It's not just age, it's skill and comfort.

Remember Bill Rennaker's heart attack?
He had a heart attack in a cave, and slowly swam back to the entrance, breathing O2 from 9M. Used up all his own O2, had his buddy leave his O2 with Rennaker while the buddy exited and arranged for an ambulance. Several hours after EMS showed up, Rennaker exited and they whisked him off to the hospital.
After all the examinations at the hospital, the told him that he had had a heart attack, but due to the several hours of self inflicted hyperbaric O2 he had suffered no major tissure damage.

If he hadn't been cavediving and had not been as pigheaded as he was, the heart attack probably would have killed him.

Michael

Damn

 

[clownfishsydney]

Many things can influence the fact that age appears to be a bigger factor in diving/snorkelling deaths. One can be that people who are retired or older have more spare money and time to go on holidays to places like Florida and do things that younger people cannot do due to lack of money, time or the impact children have on what they can do when on holidays. It is more likely that there are far more older people doing things like this than people in younger age ranges.

I also think that a lot of those who do dive are probably people who have never been in the ocean before or very rarely.

Over the past week I have dived twice with an 81 year old and of the rest, five were over 60 and one over 75. I do this every week, most of the people I dive with (including me) are over 60. Of all the deaths in Sydney from scuba diving accidents over the past 30 years, I cannot really think of one that was of a person over 60, although I am sure there was probably one or more. Most were much younger, 20s or 30s. However, when you look at the Great Barrier Reef, there are plenty of over 70s who die, mostly snorkelling. Many come from places that one could guess do not go in the ocean often, if ever apart from trips like this.

 

[seeker242]

According to DAN annual reports the majority, sometime a large majority, of fatalities occur above age 50, with most occurring in the 50-59 age bracket.