Found these posts on yahoo groups regarding accident:
"Was on the Silver Prince today, we had an accident. What I saw: 2 divers at
about 30 feet at Erics, one upside down. Gail had just gotten back into diving
after many years. She and her boyfriend were on the Beach hopper 2 weeks ago,
she was in a wetsuit and froze. So she bought a drysuit, did a pool test on
Thursday. When I saw her from about 30 feet upside down, I thought about going
over but it appeared her boyfriend had it covered. I assumed she was just having
buoyancy issues. As it turned out, according to another diver he had momentarily
lost her and her reg was not in her mouth. I feel horrible for not having gone
over to check if they needed help.
>
> I went about my dive, maybe 15-20 minutes later I heard a siren. Made it back
to the anchor and did a safe ascent (no safety stop) to the top to find the
Sanctuary boat. We loaded up (7 of us) and Chuck T. arrived to help. The crew
was awesome. There was discussion of whether there should have been 7 or 8 of
us, so Chuck said he would stand by for a bit. As it turned out 7 was correct.
>
> Went to the fuel dock to meet up with the Prince. Gail apparently came to, but
could only move her eyes to respond. By the time we got there the coast guard
and paramedics had left.
>
> First time in 12 years of diving that I have been on a boat where such an
event happened. I am grateful for all the times Mary Jo, Capt Phil, etc repeated
every trip what would happen in an emergency (siren, no boat) as all the divers
got it. If anyone knows the status of Gail it would be nice to know.
Got a call from SP captain Todd, who said he spoke to Gail, she is ok and in the
chamber.
Late yesterday afternoon Gail's dive buddy (husband?) returned the tanks that
she had rented to out on the Silver Prince. (I had already heard about Gail's
accident because a police officer had come by a couple of hours earlier to
collect our air check records since she had been using our tanks at the time of
her accident.)
Gail's dive buddy repeated much of the same information as in the previous post
-- Gail was having bouyancy issues in her new dry suit. As he went over to help
her out, he saw that her feet were slipping out of the boots and she was
ascending rapidly. He found her vertical in the water (upside down) with her
regulator out of her mouth.
He said that she revived and was taken to the hospital and appeared to be doing
OK but there was some concern about a possible embolism and so they wanted to
put her in the chamber.
He said there is no local chamber any more -- is this true? So, they were
taking her to Walnut Creek. Perhaps the nearest chamber to her house?"
