Patient unconscious after diving accident - Vancouver, BC

[Michelle!]

Found this today and can't find any other reference... Anybody hear anything about this?

Patient unconscious after diving accident

Ž© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, November 16, 2008
VANCOUVER -- An unconscious patient was being treated by paramedics yesterday afternoon after a scuba-diving accident off Whytecliff Park in West Vancou-ver. Emergency crews were called to the scene in the 7100-block Marine Drive at about 1:15 p.m. The B.C. Ambulance Service said a medevac helicopter was being launched to transport the patient. The gender and condition of the patient was not available.

 

[Skookumchuck]

Hey Michelle,
Ron and I were diving Kelvin Grove yesterday and I filled my tanks in Langley. They had a class at Whytecliff and administered oxygen but it wasn't one of thier students. Les didn't have any other details.
Andrew.

 

[sunkmail]

Here is an artical in today's (Nov 19) North Shore News (our local paper):

Diver has close call in Whytecliff waters

A scuba diver had a close call near West Vancouver's Whytecliff park Saturday when an underwater mishap sent him bobbing to the surface unconscious.

The 20-year-old California man was exploring the popular diving spot at a depth of about 40 feet around 1 p.m. when water apparently started seeping into his mask, forcing him to surface.

In his haste to reach safety, the diver allowed himself to rise too quickly. The rapid decompression caused him to lose consciousness.

When others members of the man's diving group reached him, they found him breathing but unresponsive. They brought him to shore and called 9-1-1.

West Vancouver firefighters and B.C. Ambulance paramedics treated the man on site before loading him on to a helicopter that rushed him to Vancouver General Hospital.

The victim was treated in a hyperbaric chamber and released later the same day.

------------

Not entirely sure why a leaky mask would force him to the surface, but I heard he was in a class.
I'm not 100% sure on that though.

 

[ScubaGypsy]

We did a dive at this same park in October 2007 and reached a depth to 103' with potential to go deeper. Perhaps he was much deeper than the reported 40'??

 

[sunkmail]

We did a dive at this same park in October 2007 and reached a depth to 103' with potential to go deeper. Perhaps he was much deeper than the reported 40'??

Whytecliff goes much deeper.
(I've been down to 200' there, and there is much, much more)

If he was indeed part of a class, 40' is pretty standard for lessons - it's fairly flat and sandy in the bay area - Not much around to damage, so good for teaching

 

[TSandM]

The 20-year-old California man was exploring the popular diving spot at a depth of about 40 feet around 1 p.m. when water apparently started seeping into his mask, forcing him to surface.

In his haste to reach safety, the diver allowed himself to rise too quickly. The rapid decompression caused him to lose consciousness.

If, in fact, this is what happened, this is really tragic.

I had a conversation with a woman I dove with in Indonesia, where I told her that in Fundies, we had to take our masks off and put them back on while hovering and maintaining depth. She said, "Oh, I couldn't do that!" And I wondered what she was planning on doing if somebody kicked her mask off on one of the 600 foot walls we were diving . . . Masks sometimes leak, and can get kicked or jarred and dislodged. Everybody should be able to cope with a leaking mask, or a dislodged mask. In my last three dives, in our cold green water, I have done two mask removals and replacements, simply because I did the first one for practice and didn't like how it went.

People NEED to practice those emergency skills on a regular basis. Then things like this won't happen. This young man was lucky, but he might not be next time -- if he doesn't quit diving.

 

[NudeDiver]

I don't understand why a leaky mask would "force" anyone to the surface. Mask clearing, removing and replacement are all basic OW skills. You do them in the pool - you do them to get certified. Even an OW student on a cert dive should not perform this way - he/she would have had ample practice in the pool ):

Damn.......that sucks.

 

[gcbryan]

I don't understand why rising rapidly from 40 fsw would cause him to lose consciousness?

 

[james croft]

Not saying that this is what happened in this particular case but a diver that could panic over a simple thing like a leaky mask may also be prone to bolt to the top and have an expansion injury and embolize. That could result in unconciousness.

 

[tstormdiver]

If, in fact, this is what happened, this is really tragic.

I had a conversation with a woman I dove with in Indonesia, where I told her that in Fundies, we had to take our masks off and put them back on while hovering and maintaining depth. She said, "Oh, I couldn't do that!" And I wondered what she was planning on doing if somebody kicked her mask off on one of the 600 foot walls we were diving . . . Masks sometimes leak, and can get kicked or jarred and dislodged. Everybody should be able to cope with a leaking mask, or a dislodged mask. In my last three dives, in our cold green water, I have done two mask removals and replacements, simply because I did the first one for practice and didn't like how it went.

People NEED to practice those emergency skills on a regular basis. Then things like this won't happen. This young man was lucky, but he might not be next time -- if he doesn't quit diving.

I just completed my Adv. Nitrox & Decompression Procedures course last week. We were also required to remove our masks while maintaining neutral buoyancy at depth (about 70 ft in water at about 42 degrees) & deploy a back- up mask. Fortunately we were warned about having to do this skill early enough where we could practice it, because that very cold water in the face is a massive shock:shocked2:, but in the quarries in my area, it's just a fact of diving deep, so a necessary skill . No one in the class had any problems with it. I remember in my OW, I only had to perform a mask flood/ removal 1 time in the pool & 1 time in OW. Needless to say,.... that isn't nearly enough to get comfortable with that skill. It took me about 6 mos.- 1 yr to get comfortable clearing/ removing my mask on my own. Now,... it's no big deal, but during that time, I was just lucky I didn't have any major problems with it until I had a chance to get comfortable with it. Yes, I fully agree, that is a very important skill for any diver to have mastered before graduating OW.