Diver Fatality in Cozumel

[BettyfromToronto]

I wonder if you die while playing golf.....is it a golf fatality?

Betty

 

[SeaCobra]

She was on the boat, it was a boating accident

 

[Basscat]

Here is the report from the local news from her home town. Thoughts and prayers to her and to her family.

Lake area woman dies in scuba incident abroad - lakeexpo.com: Lake News

 

[Ayisha]

Article from the link above for posterity:

Posted: Sunday, March 9, 2014 3:00 pm | Updated: 5:53 pm, Sun Mar 9, 2014.
LakeExpo.com Staff
COZUMEL, Mexico — A woman from the Lake of the Ozarks died on Wednesday while scuba diving, according to one of her fellow divers.
Elizabeth “Libby” Holland was a proficient diver, says Dan Lind, a friend and fellow Lake of the Ozarks resident who was also diving in Cozumel when Holland was there. “She was one of the best divers you’ve ever seen,” he said. Lind says Holland was in her mid-70s.
Lind owns Sleep Inn and Suites in Camdenton as well as Thomas Construction in Osage Beach. He says he was not diving with Holland, but another diver and friend who was with her informed him of the details.
According to the account, Holland broke a fin strap in the middle of the dive, at around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 5, and signaled to their leader that she was going to surface. She reportedly surfaced alone, and the friend says she saw Holland reach the surface. Holland then allegedly flagged down a nearby vessel and asked the occupants to radio her group’s boat, to have it come pick her up. When that boat arrived, Holland was reportedly face-down in the water, with her respirator out of her mouth.
An autopsy was scheduled for Friday, according to Lind, but no results have emerged yet. He indicated there was no reason to suspect foul play.
Lind added Holland had been staying at Scuba Club Resort, and was a frequent visitor to the area, often bringing groups to scuba dive.
Lind says he has been working with the U.S. Consulate to transport Holland’s personal belongings back to Missouri.

 

[flots am]

Article from the link above for posterity:

According to the last DAN fatality report I read, about 3 times as many divers die on the surface as underwater.

If your buddy needs to surface, please surface with him/her.

flots.

 

[Seymour Fisch]

According to the last DAN fatality report I read, about 3 times as many divers die on the surface as underwater.

If your buddy needs to surface, please surface with him/her.

flots.

This leads to a nagging question I've had for a while. (Apologies for a thread hijack...)

How strictly should we follow flots's advice? I'm a new diver, but on a recent cruise ship dive, my instabuddy was even newer than me. He was a great buddy, with excellent situational awareness (at least of his buddy and other divers, not his buoyancy). But his buoyancy and trim was bad, and he had multiple unplanned ascents, where he wasn't aware of buoyancy and just slowly drifted to the surface. When I saw this happening, I'd try to signal him to descend, to no avail. I ended up following him up to about 15ft, and then I'd watch him up at the surface. He'd signal he was OK, then slowly redescend.

Should I have followed him all the way to the surface? There'd be a slightly higher risk of DCS for me by omitting my safety stop, but I'd be right there to help him if he actually had a problem. Or was it good enough to be right below him and watching?

During the SI, I asked the DM for any generic pointers he might have for me, since I'm new, and he actually told me to stop following my buddy around, and that he'd take care of my buddy. But the DM never paid my buddy any attention, and just swam around, with our little group of divers following him like ducklings. So, I stuck with my uneasy compromise of following my buddy almost to the surface.

This was a Caribbean, cruise-ship dive, warm water, great viz, minimal current.

 

[flots am]

This leads to a nagging question I've had for a while. (Apologies for a thread hijack...)

How strictly should we follow flots's advice? I'm a new diver, but on a recent cruise ship dive, my instabuddy was even newer than me. He was a great buddy, with excellent situational awareness (at least of his buddy and other divers, not his buoyancy). But his buoyancy and trim was bad, and he had multiple unplanned ascents, where he wasn't aware of buoyancy and just slowly drifted to the surface. When I saw this happening, I'd try to signal him to descend, to no avail. I ended up following him up to about 15ft, and then I'd watch him up at the surface. He'd signal he was OK, then slowly redescend.

Should I have followed him all the way to the surface? There'd be a slightly higher risk of DCS for me by omitting my safety stop, but I'd be right there to help him if he actually had a problem. Or was it good enough to be right below him and watching?

If you were right under him, and could see that he was OK, that's probably close enough. You don't want to do a lot of bouncing up and down. However you should be close enough that you can grab him if he starts to sink, and make sure he's not sucking up water on the surface.

Oddly enough, the problem you had with your buddy was one of the more difficult decisions you can have. A more experienced diver would either be underwater diving, or heading for the surface. "Playing dolphin" isn't something you should normally have to deal with.

During the SI, I asked the DM for any generic pointers he might have for me, since I'm new, and he actually told me to stop following my buddy around, and that he'd take care of my buddy. But the DM never paid my buddy any attention, and just swam around, with our little group of divers following him like ducklings. So, I stuck with my uneasy compromise of following my buddy almost to the surface.

This was a Caribbean, cruise-ship dive, warm water, great viz, minimal current.

The DM was lying. He just wanted you to have a good time so you would give him a good tip and tell the cruise line you had fun.

Anybody who isn't specifically "your buddy" or is much farther away than a couple of fin kicks, is useless. The DM generally can't do anything useful as far as "ensuring your safety" (or anybody else's). This is the "new diver rude awakening" and there are any number of threads on SB where someone beleived the DM and discovered otherwise. One was quite recent.

I do cruise ship dives a few times a year. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes someone has a problem. You do the best you can, without getting hurt. As you gain experience, "the best you can do" will become more comprehensive.

flots.

 

[cb5150]

Call me silly, but I'd rather have my obit read, "He died while diving at age 75", rather than reading, "He died in a nursing home at age 75 smelling of piss and bedsores."

 

[cruiser]

She died in the ambulance so it's an ambulance accident.

 

[BettyfromToronto]

When I read the article from her home-town paper I asked "where was her buddy?". Especially if she is going up earlier than planned and the boat wouldn't be expecting anyone. And did she or this missing buddy have a SMB? If not...why didn't the DM send up his?