I respectfully disagree with your theory.
... I will clearly state what my "Pet theory" is. COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN! That breakdown may have started with the Doctor failing to make it clear to the Woods what activity level Mrs Woods was capable of.
There is no evidence that Mrs. Woods was not capable of diving as a result of any prior stroke. Nor is there actual evidence that the prior stroke was actually a contributing factor to the incident.
There is no evidence what Mrs. Woods' doctor did or did not tell her. Perhaps the doctor told Mrs. Woods not to dive and was quite clear and perhaps Mrs. Woods chose to disregard the doctor's admonition. Perhaps not. In either case, what the doctor did or didn't tell Mrs. Woods cannot be a part of any theory.
... The Woods failed to communicate Mrs Wood's medical risks to the Dive Op and/or the Dive OP failed to recognize it's significance.
Again, we do not know that there were any medical risks. Nor do we have evidence these were a factor in the incident.
If the Woods did let the dive op know Mrs. Woods had had a stroke, I am surprised the dive op let her dive at all. I've seen too many dive ops refuse to let divers dive for much lesser maladies.
... Communication failed between Mrs Wood and the DM.
Again, there is no evidence of a communication failure. For all anyone can tell, Mrs. Woods got the DM's message quite clearly and then disregarded it.
... The DM got the message across to onlyhalcyon probably because he saw what had occurred. The DM's and Dive Crew failed to listen to onlyhalcyon which delayed the rescue.
That the DMs and Dive Crew failed to listen to
onlyhalcyon is an understatement. However, my impression is that by the time
onlyhalcyon got to the other DMs and/or Dive Crew, it was way too late to perform any sort of a rescue or recovery.
... I am assuming the reason the DM assigned to Mrs Wood surfaced last is because she was still looking for Mrs Wood. I can't be sure of that of course it would require the DM's statement (if she was believed) to clarify that point!
I think this is a reasonable assumption. And, for anyone who thinks the DM should have surfaced and sought help, look at the issues surrounding Gabe Watson when he let his new wife sink while he purportedly went for help.
... I don't think we can rule out another stroke, Narcosis, Suicide or overconfidence and unwillingness to listen to a younger DM as contributing factors in this event.
I agree we can't rule these out. But, I feel it is too speculative to base any theory on any of these. (My pet theory will come shortly.)
... Certainly IMHO the Dive Operator and every crew member who did not take onlyhalcyon's attempts to get help share some responsibility!
Again, it seems to me that by the point
onlyhalcyon was able to signal or otherwise communicate to anyone, it was too late. As such, I do not see it is a matter of sharing responsibility for anything.
Now for my personal pet theory: For reasons that no one will ever know, Mrs. Woods went deep and did not come back up. She died either (1) as a result of running out of air, (2) oxygen toxicity at sufficient depth (yes, even on air), or (3) from some other condition.
I recognize that my theory is not particularly elegant or exciting. However, it
does explain the known facts and does not require speculation about "facts" that cannot be established.
The net result is that I am moving toward the camp that questions why the DM assigned to Mrs. Woods let her get so far away that when Mr. Woods started her descent over the wall, the DM was not able to act decisively to bring her back up. While I can see why the DM may not have chased Mrs. Woods after a certain point, I wonder whether, had the initial interaction not been so deep, i.e. had the DM gotten to her sooner, the DM would have had more opportunity to remedy the situation.
