I read this a little more closely and it is not so clear that she can throw stones ("ego driven morons"???) from a position of superior judgment. She managed to avoid a personal catastrophe by being calm, but she did not enhance the safety of the dive. Bottom line, she was cast adrift from her surface support, alone, exhausted, and stressed, for an unknown period (probably a long time, if the deco dives took place as planned). That is not a "good" outcome, it is a bad one, it is merely less bad than injury or death.
I read it as she was not an instructor, only a friend of the instructors, shooting video as a favor to the instructors. The instructors and students are focused on each other, they are not her buddy. Obviously, no one was focused on her and it does not even sound like she had a buddy. Why on earth was this dive, a 200' deco dive in strong current, planned
by her without buddy support? Even worse, with her being encoumbered with video gear and so a back-up even more essential? Was that an "ego driven" decision?
On the way up, she "passed her friends and husband" and no one stayed with her? Could they not observe her distress? Boy, if I ever did that to my spouse buddy, I'd have some serious explaining to do, probably in divorce court.
But, on the other side,
why did she give the "OK" sign when she knew she was having physical and mental stress? Being responsible means also letting your team know the truth about what is going on. Was that an "ego driven" decision?
At the ladder, she refused to call out and demand in-water assistance from the crew. Was that an "ego driven" decision?
She contributed to her bad situation by lack of buddy planning and failing to communicate accurately with her team and her surface support. She made the best of her situation by staying calm, but what was
not sound was how she got in that situation to begin with. This dive never should have been done in the first place. It was an accident waiting to happen. In fact, an accident happened to her, and sounds like others in the group suffered uncontrolled ascents and other issues and only avoided serious incident by luck.
What I don't understand is her calling other divers under those conditions, placed in extremely difficult circumstances, "ego driven morons" for trying to stay in touch with their surface support, which undoubtedly was the dive plan. What a ridiculous statement! She did not fare any better than they. Judging from the narrative, this whole dive was an exercise in poor judgment on may levels and no one should be very proud of it, her included. Her "ego driven" decision not to have a buddy, not to tell the truth to her team, not to call for in-water assistance at the surface, all contributed to her being separated from her surface support. and cast adrift. The philosophical yoga-drivel does not enoble the result or cloak her with superior judgment.
In fact, this is an ideal example of situational (un)awareness and lack of evaluation, and how bad things come from bad decisions that could have been avoided. Just look at the at multiple opportunities to avoid this, such as: (1) deciding on a drifting descent/ascent (2) if using the line, rigging a granny from anchor to ladder so no step of the ascent is without support (3) having a buddy that actually is worth something in a time of need, and, on the other side, signalling that buddy that you are calling the dive and need assistance (4) leaving the video rig in the boat once you know you are in a 2kt current and will have to be holding on to something most of the dive just to be kept on the site; (5) having surface support willing to get in the water to assist you, and asking for that assist, and, grand prize, (6) taking the safe option and doing the reef drifts instead.