29 Dec 10 Fiji Diving Incident (Amy O'Maley Fatality), Part I

[sydney-diver]

Ask them which dive sites they plan to go to and the back up sites, get all the info on the sites including currents and recommended skill level.

DO NOT FEEL YOU HAVE TO DIVE OR CONTINUE A DIVE IF YOU THINK IT MAY BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU!

That's good advice. It also pays to check when you board the boat if anything has changed since the initial booking. I've often booked resort dives, been told we're going to XYZ site then found out the site has been changed at the request of other divers who want to dive a specific site. In Bora Bora there were a couple who wanted to go to a specific site to see turtles. It was a spectacular dive and I was extremely pleased to do it, but at the same time concerned for the open water divers as we were taken well beyond their certified max depth (I recorded 28.2m and I was the only person on the boat certified for more than 18).

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

That's good advice. It also pays to check when you board the boat if anything has changed since the initial booking. I've often booked resort dives, been told we're going to XYZ site then found out the site has been changed at the request of other divers who want to dive a specific site. In Bora Bora there were a couple who wanted to go to a specific site to see turtles. It was a spectacular dive and I was extremely pleased to do it, but at the same time concerned for the open water divers as we were taken well beyond their certified max depth (I recorded 28.2m and I was the only person on the boat certified for more than 18).

Yes that sort of thing is going to happen, Boat crews want to please their customers but they don't realize that some divers may have book the charter because they wanted to go to the original site. Not very profesional, could you emagine if this happened on the aircraft you were flying on.
If the dive site is changed to please other divers again talk to the DM and get the info. If it sounds like it is too much for you tell them you can't dive that site and you want to go the the original site. Don't be shy, get mad if you have to. You paid for one thing and are getting another.
ZDD

 

[pterantula]

I truly appreciate this discussion (and others of the like), and I don't usually have much to add that hasn't been said - but I do have something to add here.
I dived with "BAD" (Beqa Adventure Divers - not a great acronym under the circumstances) back in '07, for a week with their truly awesome bull & tiger shark feed. I was impressed with them, would GLADLY dive with them again, and had one of the most wonderful and enlightening experiences of my entire life while playing with the bulls & tigers down there. I was forced to wonder, are we talking about a different Beqa Adventure Divers?? I couldn't have been happier with my dives (I travelled alone, and made several new friends), and would go back as soon as possible as mentioned, and I'm left just scratching my head at this whole incident.

I won't call this "tragic", as that implies it was fated and there was never any hope in the matter, but it is very sad and I feel terrible for the family.

 

[kdsmithjr]

Interesting. I am an american living in Mindanao, in the southern philippines, about an hour south of davao city. I'm a relatively new diver, with about 80 dives since last spring under my belt. 95% of the dives in the Gulf of Davao and a couple in Sarangani Bay, in the southern part of Mindanao. I learned do dive here last spring and all of my diving has been here in the philippines.
As I read the story, it seemed that the dive operations there are like those here: definitely adecquate on safety, but having been born and raised (and worked for 30 years) in the USA, I'd say that US safety standards are probably a tad on the "anal" side.
As the story is relayed, the divers were in a situation that required some experience and it also seems that the dive OP wasn't babysitting them either, having just razor thin DM coverage and, it appears, the DM's probably were a tad on the loose side...in terms of keeping people appropriately corralled....a necessity if you only have a couple of DM's on a dive with a strong current.
I think was actually made the difference between life and death for the diver...and led to a tragic outcome....is that (somewhat like in the philippines) if you have a "situation", you cannot assume that when you get the victim back on land that life support and medical care will go from "advanced first aide" to first class, state of the art life support medical care. In fact, if i read the story correctly, the victim was probably quite saveable...until she was taken off the boat and put in the hands of local medical care. Things should ramp upward at that point; it seemed that the word "incompetent" would be a wild understatement for how bad the victim's care was once she was taken off the dive boat.
In closing, I understand how, from an american or austrailian perspective, you would expect the dive op to cease operations, at least temporarily, when a fatality occurred. And, the dive op did have razor thin resources to medically assist a diver and they definitely should have taken the accident as a red flag to up the ante on DM supervision and medical support of divers but..it's Fiji...not Austrailia or the US. Adecquate or meeting requirements may be how a US or Austrailian dive op conducts business. Here in the Philippines or in Fiji the standard is closer to "good 'nuff" and it actually may not be "good 'nuff" it the situation is severe. And assuming that 'if we just make it to shore things will improve...' might be a fatal error.

 

[danvolker]

When a DM takes inexperienced divers into a high current dive while the boat is on a mooring line, this is a Trust Me" Dive, and new divers should NEVER do "trust me dives"....As a new diver, or as a worried diver, you just don't follow into a dive that makes you nervous..not ever.
The AED is not the solution....Not doing the dive was the solution.

 

[Hatul]

When a DM takes inexperienced divers into a high current dive while the boat is on a mooring line, this is a Trust Me" Dive, and new divers should NEVER do "trust me dives"....As a new diver, or as a worried diver, you just don't follow into a dive that makes you nervous..not ever.
The AED is not the solution....Not doing the dive was the solution.

That was my thinking as well. The AED is a red herring. The experienced diver knows to abort the dive early when conditions turn bad. After all it's recreational diving so there's no point taking big risks with your life. On the other hand the victim was a new diver so it was easy for her to misjudge. And it sounds like the conditions were not anticipated to be bad like they were when the dive was planned. It's hard to know exactly where to place the blame.

Adam

 

[DandyDon]

Blaming is actually prohibited here anyway. The forum is for learning.

 

[cbm32]

I returned a couple of weeks ago from a lengthy trip to Fiji. During that trip I burned 12 tanks with Bega Adventure Divers. With each of my dives with them they went over the safety equipment on board and did a dive briefing that included drawing a map of the dive site on a dry erase board as well as max depth expected and bottom time (although expected bottom time was often exceeded by some divers that still had plenty of air while the others boarded the boat). They are not a mom and pop shop and operate two purpose built dive boats. I would gladly dive with Bega Adventure Divers again. With that being said, I am not surprised at all that there was no ambulance waiting at the dive shop. I was in Fiji for nine and a half weeks and I strongly suspect you wont see an honest to goodness ambulance outside of Suva, Nadi, or Lautoka. I could be wrong, but it would greatly surprise me if any real ambulance could reach Pacific Harbour in less than 45 minutes to an hour. I can not judge how the dive staff would function in an emergency situation as I did not see them in those conditions. However, I do know that many of them have been diving for fifteen to thirty five years and working as dive professionals on nearly a daily basis for the vast majority of that time. I love the Fijian people. However, I must say that there were many, many times when I found their responses to questions to be far from what one would expect when asked questions within their supposed area of expertise. I did not have that happen with dive staff but I did have it happen with taxi drives, retail sales people, and also with people working in the resort/hotel industry. Questions that people in those industries in the USA could handle in their sleep were met with blank expressions in Fiji and no amount of explaining elicited acceptable answers, even though English is the official language of the country. Fiji is a fantastic place to vacation and especially for a dive vacation, but make no mistake about the fact that when you are there it is a different world. Dont expect things to run like they do if you are in the states or Oz or Canada etc etc. Some people just dont seem to grasp this concept. As an example, while on an Nacula Island at what is nearly the farthest point out in the Yasawas, there was a fire that burned for more than two days over the majority of the island and for a time threatened two of the resorts on the island. One diver, while watching the island burn from the dive boat we were on, indicated that they just couldnt understand why they didnt just drop a water bomb or two on the fire. It took three of us other divers quite some time to convince her that those kinds of resources were just not available where we were.

 

[ferris213]

I have dived in Fiji with an operation that was even less equipped than Bega Adventure Divers by the sounds of things, and I think some on this thread have missed the real issues here. Divers not adhering to the buddy system, not having adequate gas planning (if any at all) and possibly not having the skills to complete the dive they are undertaking.

This should really never have been a fatality. Regardless of what the current was doing (barring a massive down current), why didn't the diver surface when she was low on air? I understand the OP giving a very detailed account of what happened after the OOA, after all, that was what he witnessed. But I think the answers to the questions surrounding this incident lie in the minutes leading up to Amy going out of air.

From my limited understanding of dive accidents, once you have stopped breathing underwater, you have a very slim chance of survival. Regardless of where you are or the level of care that can be offered to you.

This is a terrible thing for all concerned. It's tragic that someone has lost their life doing something that is supposed to be fun, but I don't think addressing the lack of ambulance or hospital care will prevent the same outcome in the future. The dive op should have working Oxygen and someone who knows how to use it, however even this can not be counted on in these type of places.

At the end of the day it is the diver who is responsible for getting back to the surface with a reserve of air.

 

[wtcreaux]

From my limited understanding of dive accidents, once you have stopped breathing underwater, you have a very slim chance of survival. Regardless of where you are or the level of care that can be offered to you.

ANYTIME you have stopped breathing, you have a very slim chance of survival (even if in a hospital surrounded by trained personnel UNLESS one of them intervenes). Being underwater compounds the problem exponentially. In my line of work, we call this a low-probability, extreme-risk situation.

Some circumstances in life do not lend themselves to second chances (or at least very well), i.e. gunshots to the head, falling from 100' with sudden stop on rock/concrete, running out of air at depth, etc.

Having spent 30+ years in Emergency Services, my kid can testify I'm an *$$ when it comes to safety. She asks, "what do I do if I run out of air??" My answer - "DON'T!! You should be monitoring your air/depth/time the entire time and SHOULD be able to accurately guess where you are on same. If not, CHECK!!" I compare this to a pilot asking "what should I do if I run out of gas (at altitude)??" My answer - "DON'T!! You're not going to like the consequences and may not survive it (auto-rotation, rotor-wing)."

Maybe folks (in general) don't put enough emphasis on prevention . But I have documented more than once on a patient record - Bystanders state patient said "hey ya'll, watch this"

/rant off