NC: Scuba diver dies after rescue

[Piccola]

Freewillie, I was also wondering about the volume of water in the lungs which would indicate a drowning versus an immediate stoppage of breathing. I only know what Dan's wife stated, which was there appeared to be no immediate medical cause. I am not a doctor but I would guess the suggestions noted here such as lung expansion, embolism, etc would have been apparent at autopsy, which appears not to be the case. He was already at the bottom of the line when the tragedy happened, which would make me think line jerk, negative entries, etc are also not the case. I hope there is eventually some explanation so that we might all learn from how this could happen to an experienced diver during what appeared to be an uneventful dive.

 

[freewillie]

An eyewitness account notes that the diver passed out. The time from when he was last seen alive to the time when he appeared unresponsive was less than a minute. His buddy also states that when he came back after retrieving the lost fin the diver's reg was out of the mouth. By the time the diver was then brought to the surface he was completely unresponsive. By eyewitness accounts he never recovered, and one eyewitness who has contacted me in private believes he was dead when he surfaced.

I will speculate based on these accounts he had some sort of cardiac event brought about by the physical stress of diving at that depth. He likely had a sudden cardiac arrest due to a heart attack, just playing statistical probabilities. His reg came out of his mouth and he likely continued to breath for a few moments. By the time his buddies had brought him to the surface he was in full cardiac arrest and no amount of rescucitation would have revived him.

As an aside, these cardiac events can happen to patients on dry land and depending on the location of the heart attack no amount of CPR will save them. Even if he had called 911 and an ambulace came the likelihood of surviving even with proper medical care in a timely manner is less 2%. Also, these events are not random. There is almost always a predisposing factor such as high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, etc. As the previous post on BMI they are risk factors which helps to explain such events. The increased BMI make those issues much more likely and there is a direct clinical correlation to being overweight and heart disease/

IMO the best way to decrease the risk of dying while diving is to maintain appropriate body weight and exercise/stay in shape. Good training and safe diving practices not withstanding.

safe diving.