Filmmaker Rob Stewart dies off Alligator Reef

[CuzzA]

I think there should be a spin off thread regard co. I recently called Dan and discussed the issue with one of the higher ups and I was shocked to learn, IIRC, they only have one documented case of co poisoning. He said they get requests to test gas all the time and they always come back negative.

I'm not discounting the threat, but I'd enjoy a more thorough debate on the subject without silting this thread up.

 

[Patoux01]

I think there should be a spin off thread regard co. I recently called Dan and discussed the issue with one of the higher ups and I was shocked to learn, IIRC, they only have one documented case of co poisoning. He said they get requests to test gas all the time and they always come back negative.

Either they've lied to you, or they have nobody reporting to them, but there's a lot more than that.

 

[reefrat]

While I hate to interrupt this riveting dialogue, we might benefit from a return to the actual incident under discussion.

No time line in determining Rob Stewart’s cause of death

No time line- but it seems plenty of official interest!
The systematic (if not always polite) debate of potentially related factors by so many individuals on this thread is, I think, indicative of the general interest in this tragic event. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little bit of political pressure from up North to get some closure by means of an effective investigation.
And of course, effective investigation means looking for the real underlying causes, the dive industry and community system failures that in some way contribute to rebreather or OC deaths so that the rest of us can learn and improve our chances of surviving while having fun.

 

[CuzzA]

Either they've lied to you, or they have nobody reporting to them, but there's a lot more than that.

I don't doubt there have been more since not all accidents are investigated by DAN. But, I thought it was worth relaying what I was told. More to the point that (and I'm paraphrasing) "they get requests to test suspected contaminated gas often and they are always within safe limits." Personally, IMO, this theory doesn't fit in this incident.

 

[KevinNM]

Bottom line is that a CO level that would be lethal to an open circuit diver is an irrelevancy to a rebreather diver.

This is an red herring theory not developed by anyone who has actually thought it thru.

Except that this has actually happened, as I posted previously in this thread.

Filmmaker Rob Stewart dies off Alligator Reef

 

[swamp diver]

The irony......isn't Claudia L Roussos MD the wife of Sotis, and was there when Rob died?

Carbon Monoxide - essential knowledge for ALL divers

 

[CuzzA]

I don't see any irony here. I'm not a co victim expert, but my understanding is if their gas was contaminated to the point of losing consciousness Sotis wouldn't have just hopped back up after huffing some o2 on deck.

This is wild speculation and doesn't fit what we know.

 

[St John the Diver]

I don't see any irony here. I'm not a co victim expert, but my understanding is if their gas was contaminated to the point of losing consciousness Sotis wouldn't have just hopped back up after huffing some o2 on deck.

This is wild speculation and doesn't fit what we know.

^^^ This. It's a red herring theory.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I must say that I never thought the gas was contaminated. I was just disputing about the whole CO vs O2 situation. I would tend more to believing that the scrubber was pushed to the point where CO2 was not removed effectively and thus a hypercapnia event. To my knowledge there is not a RB device to detect CO2 in the loop. Increased CO2 can cause headache, confusion and lethargy, symptomatology progresses to disorientation, hyperventilation, convulsions, unconsciousness, and eventually death.

 

[John Bantin]

Just for clarity and without prejudice:

In 1993 I experimented with hypoxia (while not underwater) because with a prototype rebreather I was anxious to know the symptoms of oncoming hypoxia. I discovered that there were none. I breathed off the loop while lying horizontal on a bed, with the O2 turned off. It was probably extremely quick but the truth is I cannot remember, because I went unconscious as surely as if I had a bullet in the brain. The mouthpiece fell out and when I came round some hours later, I suffered an almighty hangover. If I had been in the water, I would have surely drowned. What I learned from this was that when you surface, close the mouthpiece and get off the loop. Drowning is a real possibility otherwise and if your wing was not inflated, you would drop too.

I am not saying this is what happened to Rob Stewart but it is a possibility if O2 was low or even turned off (as was the case with Dr Max Hahn, a famous decompression expert and early CCR casualty).