Wife describes losing husband - Maui, Hawaii

[Esprise Me]

I think we can discount many of the odd terms & descriptions to journalism these days.

What do you suppose really happened?

 

[Diver below 83]

scopolamine is supposed to be really effective but I don't know if it has any potential to make a person more susceptible to narcosis.

I’ll have to look into it. Is it easily available like Dramamine?

 

[aviator8]

I’ll have to look into it. Is it easily available like Dramamine?

I have never used it but, I am pretty sure that you will have to work through the US healthcare mafia system to get some at a massively elevated price though. Unless you are going overseas, where you can probably purchase at any pharmacy for penny's on the dollar.

 

[Rooster59]

Sounds like lawyers / liability insurance is going to force every diver to have AOW to go below a legal hard bottom of 60 feet.

 

[NothingClever]

What do you suppose really happened?

Agree with Marie that the article is a hot mess, meant to play on emotions.

To answer directly, I think inexperienced, somewhat negligent and physically susceptible divers got in over their heads. There very well may be some culpability on the part of the crew for not better gauging the experience and capabilities of the divers but I don’t think that relieves certified divers from personal responsibility.

That doesn’t diminish the pain of Ms. Monday’s loss. However, I think the causal factors precipitating the death and the emotional trauma after the death should be considered separately.

 

[Esprise Me]

My question was specifically regarding the part where they said they were going to descend separately and buddy up underwater.

 

[John the Pom]

Me too, but if she was certified 30 years ago.. who knows what her instructor taught her back then and of that what she would actually remember. My regular dive buddy was certified decades ago by a defunct agency called NASDS. Apparently they included a full on cave dive in open water class during his certification. Although some claim instruction has gone down hill over the years, there is at least some evidence to the contrary.

My wife and I both did O/W certification in the 1980s (in different countries) and my strong impression is that we spent a lot more time in the classroom, and did a lot more practical drills, compared to typical current O/W courses. A lot of the drills really tested your confidence, like retrieving and donning all of the gear underwater, doing exercises with blacked-out masks, out-of-air drills where the instructors would turn off your air without warning, etcetera. I guess they got rid of those things because it was bad for business.

 

[catone]

It sounds like the Instructor inflated her BCD to get her to the surface quickly, due to there probably not being enough gas between the three of them to get everyone to the surface safely, better a bent diver on the surface than a dead diver at depth after running out of air!

My guess is the instructor/DM just inflated the BC to establish some buoyancy. I'm pretty sure she did not add any going from 70 to 185 chasing down her husband, and with a full tank and maybe over weighed, she could've been sinking like a rock by then.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

I can't help but imagine what that woman felt watching her husband and father of her children drift limply into the depths. Her heart literally broke.

Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

 

[MrVegas]

Hope this is OK to link -- discussion of dramamine and narcosis in chamber test: https://www.webmd.com/drug-medication/news/20000920/dramamine-risk-for-scuba-divers#1

Also has a brief discussion of pseudoephedrine, although that's not the main focus of the article.