West Hawk Lake fatality - Manitoba, Canada

[DandyDon]

Man dies after scuba diving incident in West Hawk Lake | CBC News

A 55-year-old scuba diver pulled out of West Hawk Lake unconscious and not breathing on Sunday has died, RCMP say.

Officers were called to the scene in Whiteshell Provincial Park at about 3:30 p.m., where they found members of the local fire department and bystanders attempting to resuscitate the man.

Despite their efforts, the 55-year-old from Winnipeg was pronounced dead.

RCMP believe the man was diving with two others in West Hawk Lake at a depth of about 20 metres when the other divers noticed the 55-year-old needed help.

The man was brought to surface and then taken to shore where people began CPR.

STARS Air Ambulance was called to the scene, but it was too late to save the man.

West Hawk Lake is about 140 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

 

[DiverJoc]

So sad. We have a cottage on west hawk and saw the helicopter. So sad to see it happen.

 

[Rickk]

West Hawk is the one dive site where I have the most dives. It is handy and close to where I lived, lots of diving there including a lot of train9ng dives.

It is where I have done all my ice diving as well.


Sad to hear about another facility there.

 

[CanadaDan]

I dove there the day before and I know many of the divers that were in the water with him and that were on shore and have talked to all of them that I know. They are the best of the best. EVERYTHING possible was done. Many instructors, DM’s, rescue divers and commercial divers were attending to him instantly. (This is the primary training site for our province). AED, emergency O2 and multiple CPR providers were in place instantly. They kept it up until the paramedics arrived. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have surrounding me in a moment of distress than the divers that were there.

This will quite likely be ruled a medical event and not a dive specific cause.

 

[CanadaDan]

West Hawk is the one dive site where I have the most dives. It is handy and close to where I lived, lots of diving there including a lot of train9ng dives.

It is where I have done all my ice diving as well.


Sad to hear about another facility there.

Hey Rick, Don’t know which shop you affiliated with while you were here but I thought you’d want to know **** was a Diver City guy (I’m an Underworld DMC but from what I’ve heard he had started his DM course with them recently). There were Underworld divers involved in the rescue attempts as well.

 

[CanadaDan]

The **** edit above was the first name of the diver. Please know that the divers name is known locally and while not formally released in the media has been widely shared on social media. His family has been notified. I would have never mentioned his name otherwise.

 

[telemonster]

Medical? Open circuit or CCR?

 

[CanadaDan]

Medical? Open circuit or CCR?

Medical as in not related to the act of diving but rather occurred while diving. The official report will be sometime coming but a cardiac event is the likely cause.

Open circuit.

 

[Sean Walberg]

My condolences to the family and friends. I'm originally from Winnipeg and have camped up there a few times. This hits close to home.

 

[DandyDon]

There are several versions of this news story on the web, but they all seem to be just restating the original source with no investigative reporting. He was recovered by dive buddies so the actual cause is probably known to some locals. Cardiac events are possible at any age it seems, but who knows.