New Diver injured in training...who is responsible?

[jamesw71]

My wife was on a cruise recently and signed up for diving instruction which was listed as one of the cruise ships excursions.

She had always wanted to go diving and this presented an opportunity to go.

On her first dive she was taken down 40 feet and had a guide rope to help her. For some reason the instructor was talking to her and guided her away from the guide rope and did something with her regulator which she says caused her to ascend to the surface.

However, she must have ascended too fast and uncontrollably because she was bleeding out of her nose and ears when she got to the surface. She was not able to hold onto the rope because the instructor pulled her away and whatever he did to her regulator caused her to surface too fast.

She is complaining of major headaches and went to the cruise ships medical office to get looked at. They have said she now has 1 blown ear drum and damage to the other. She also has damage to her sinuses in her nose and was bleeding out of both ears and nostrils. She can't hear out of the one ear and still has pain in her head.

The cruise line is claiming it was an independent company who did the instruction and they are not liable for anything that happened, even though it was listed as an excursion on their website.

The diving instructor is saying my wife lied and came to the surface on her own and they are not liable because she signed a waiver. The problem is she is not a certified diver, she was receiving instruction...how can she be liable when this instructor caused this to happen? Why would he pull her away from the safety rope and mess with her regulator?

She isn't due back for several more days so unsure what to do or if I should contact lawyer because she is going to need surgery from the sounds of it? She can't get any water in either ear without risk of infection.

 

[Marie13]

Is she sure he didn't do anything with her BCD (inflate it) rather than her reg?

 

[jamesw71]

The instructor was messing with her gear...she was just sitting there on the bottom while he was trying to communicate to her after pulling her away from the safety line....she is bleeding from the ears and can't hear...she isn't quite sure what happened and I am going off of eyewitness comments.

 

[jamesw71]

I've also never been diving so I don't know the terminology....sorry

 

[Vicko]

I can't talk about responsibility but I can guess what happened. Your wife wanted to do a try out dive, as it is a cruise company I will guess there were a lot of people who wanted it. The dive operation could not handle the big traffic and it relaxed the safety standards. May be your wife just panicked and may be she was not informed about proper procedures, I doubt that she surfaced directly because of anything the instructor did, it was most likely combination of your wife's and the instructors inexperience with the situation. I would find a witness for her instruction above water, that is the probable place where something potentialy liable might have happened. I would also make sure your wife gets to a hospital, blown eardrums and ruptured sinues are a major trauma that can get very complicated.

 

[frndrfoe]

If you can find out if the instructor was messing with the regulator part that was on her right or her left (attached to vest) it might be an indicator. Knowing she might not be very familiar with the equipment, that might make it clearer.

Personal injury lawyers are usually free on initial consultation.

 

[SeaHorse81]

I'm so sorry to hear what happened to your wife. It may be difficult to sort out what really happened due to her inexperience with both the gear and the terminology unless someone else saw most or all of it as it happened. Good luck, and I hope she recovers fully.

 

[Jack Hammer]

In order to attempt to figure out what happened you are going to need more and better details. As a diver, the description of events you are giving doesn't really make sense.

As to the bleeding, typically reports of bleeding from nose and ears are from going down and not equalizing or forcefully equalizing. It is possible to have damage coming up if equalization doesn't occur as air trapped in spaces expands. It is less common though as the body will usually self adjust on the way up. A medical Dr will be better suited to explain this in detail.

 

[redacted]

A known hazzard other the discover scuba experience. Good luck. You will need it.

 

[pconsidine]

I would blame the instructor since as a instructor we are trained to act in any situation and not permit a runaway acent. If this was a Padi Discover Program the ratio can only be 4 students to 1 instructor unless instructor has a assistant (Divemaster) in which case can increase count by 2 additional students.IF I were you I
would file a complaint with PADI if instructor was a Padi Instructor.