6/20/09 - Avalon, Catalina - Freediver drowned...

[promocop]

How in god's name does this happen? Someone please tell me. The LA County Coroner just did a presentation at ECO and he stated that the Avalon Dive Park has had more then its fair share of accidents. Coindicnece or just plain bad luck? A big tragedy.

 

[drbill]

I was at the park that day but had left to go home before the incident. I had spoken with Tony's sister and the bride-to-be prior to the incident. They were setting up their gear next to the Dr. Bill Mobile. I couldn't imagine what the odd float (an inflatable human male dressed up as a pirate with bandana on his head and swim suit) was for so I asked them. Tony's sister said it was to celebrate the upcoming wedding of the other girl I spoke with. Once they explained that, I thought it was pretty funny and filmed the float out in the water.

My understanding was that Tony was an experienced diver. He had been SCUBA diving prior to going out without his SCUBA kit to simply retrieve the float which was in relatively shallow water (20-25') near the shore. I wouldn't have thought twice about going out to retrieve it myself, although I would have been on SCUBA had I done so. The dive park had a number of divers present and I would not have considered it in the least bit foolish to attempt what Tony attempted given his apparent experience and youth.

I spoke to the individuals, mostly from CDS, who retrieved Tony's body. They mentioned they thought he had made several attempts to retrieve the float's anchor line. He may not have rested sufficiently at the surface between these attempts and had residual CO-2 in his lungs. That is somewhat speculative however.

Shallow water blackout seemed to be the most logical explanation, although I wondered if there was another underlying medical issue that may have contributed to it. I think the autopsy results cleared that up. Shallow water blackout is one reason I no longer free dive. Over the years I've seen a few free divers leave for the great dive site in the sky because of it.

SVThuh, please give Tony's sister my condolences. I heard afterwards she is a doctor and actually worked with the paramedics to try to revive Tony. This must have been a horrible experience for her, the family and the friends who were gathered for what should have been a joyous occasion.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I just got word from his family that the autopsy concluded . . .

As some of you who read this forum already know, I am a Forecnsic Consutlant for the Los Anegles County Coroner in scuba fatalties. Even this tehcnically isn't a scuba death (since it occured during a free-dive following a scuba dive), I've been in touch with the Coroner and we dicussed this a bit.

After seeing SVThuh's post, I called in and double-checked and would like to clarify a few things:

1. The autopsy has NOT been done. It will be done Tuesday morning (6/23).

2. Obviously, no conclusions have been reached by the Coroner since the autopsy hasn't been done.

3. In the course of the overall investigation, the Coroner has talked with the family and some of the possible causes of death were discussed. This may be where "the autopsy concluded" impression came from.

4. Although the autopsy will be conducted tomorrow, it is likely to be 6-8 weeks until an official Cause of Death (COD) is determined. This is to allow time for toxicology reports, equipment testing (if we do any - looks doubtful given the circumstances as known now), and other things.

5. There is no test to establish, with medical certainty, Shallow-Water Blackout as a cause of death. While itt may be a possibility, that conclusion would more likely come form bystander and eyewitness intrviews. Given that no one seems to have actually witnessed when he went unconscious, my educated layman's opinion is that a conclusion of SWB is unlikely. (To be clear, this doesn't mean it couldn't have happened, just that it couldn't be stated with enough medical certainty to be included in the report.)

6. Drowning is a diagnosis of exclusion. In other words, you rule everything else out (heart attack, seizure, etc.) and you're left with drowning as the only other possibility.

7. Water in the lungs doesn't mean you drowned. (It could have entered post-mortem.) Absence of water in the lungs doesn't mean you didn't drown (known as "dry drowning").

I hope that helps clear things up a bit. I'm happy to answer any questions I can. And if you have any first-hand information about this accident, please feel free to contact me directly and I'll put you in touch with the Coroner's Investigator handling this case.

- Ken

 

[drbill]

How in god's name does this happen? Someone please tell me. The LA County Coroner just did a presentation at ECO and he stated that the Avalon Dive Park has had more then its fair share of accidents. Coindicnece or just plain bad luck? A big tragedy.

My response has no relation to this particular incident, but...

The dive park is considered a very safe place for the training of OW students and for refreshing one's skills if they have not been diving for a while. I have seen as many as 450 divers there on a single day. I think the fact that there is probably a large percentage of divers at the park with little to no experience (or recent experience) diving contributes to the number of deaths.

A number of the reported deaths that I've heard final autopsies on were not in good shape and the stress of doing something outside their normal experience may add increased stress that triggers health problems that might have surfaced under other conditions as well. For this reason I prefer not to list heart attacks and other health-related deaths as SCUBA-related deaths. Ken Kurtis has commented in the past that there are not as many SCUBA-related deaths there as people assume (including me).

I believe there have only been two fatalities in the dive park this year. Of course given the economy, it was a slow winter (and summer is picking up but not at too rapid a pace).

 

[drbill]

I see Ken Kurtis was writing his informative post at the same time I was writing mine. Thanks for your very informed read on this, Ken.

 

[Thalassamania]

Bubble pumping is a well known and documented phenomena. I've never know it to cause death - but

A careful autopsy can find the gas bubbles in the cranial circulation. As far as I know (I used to prep bodies for the coroner, but that was a while ago) SWB is not detectable on autopsy but must be inferred.

Thanks Ken.

 

[Anti-Hero]

Bubble pumping is a well known and documented phenomena. I've never know it to cause death - but

A careful autopsy can find the gas bubbles in the cranial circulation. As far as I know (I used to prep bodies for the coroner, but that was a while ago) SWB is not detectable on autopsy but must be inferred.

Thanks Ken.

I've never heard of BP being the direct cause of death either, but with symptoms including loss of consciousness, paralysis, and other stroke-like manifestations, it seems plausible that such a physical impairment coupled with presumably negative buoyancy could have been that unfortunate chain of events . . .

It just seems odd, given your explanation of the mechanisms of SWB, that a young, fit individual with an average or above average cardiopulmonary fitness would suffer such a malady in ~25 ft. of water without being down for an exceptional amount of time.

 

[Thalassamania]

FDog PMed me:

... I'm curious - this seems to be the opposite of what I was taught quite a few years ago, what is presently listed in the literature, and is accepted by the competitive freediving community?

Just curious where you're coming from.
​

I replied:

I just did a web search and there is some confusion of terms. What I posted is rather straight from the diving medicine community, but ... it appears that some of the free diving types are now splitting into shallow water blackout and deep water blackout as two separate phenomena and are applying the term deep water blackout to the think that the Medicos are still calling shallow water blackout.

After I do a bit more reading I'll try and iron this one definitively out in the thread. Thanks for the heads up.
​

I done a bit more checking and it does seem that the free diving community does make a distinction, rather well covered in wiki:

Shallow water blackout - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[DandyDon]

Ok, both are shallow water blackouts, one after a deeper dive, one after a shallower dive - with other differences.

 

[mortedr]

First of all, I'm not a SCUBA diver, I'm just a person who found this board searching for information of a friend of myself and my wife. Unfortunately, Tony was our friend and remarkably close considering the short time we'd known him.

I wanted to post to thank you all for the information and insight you have provided to those of us with no experience in these matters make some kind of sense of this. My wife and I both thank you for your kind words directed to his family and friends. He will be sorely missed.

In closing, please please continue to do this. You all have made things more sensible to us and in some cases that counts more than most can imagine. I can't speak for his family, but I speak for us in saying again thank you, and keep up the good work.