Scuba Death - Umkomaas South Africa - 21 Mar 2013

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Scuba diver killed in accident | The New Age Online

A Gauteng man died while scuba diving on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast on Thursday, Netcare paramedics said.

The circumstances surrounding the incident was unclear, said spokesman Chris Botha.

"Netcare 911 paramedics arrived at the Umkomaas diving site and waited for the dive boat to bring the man to shore," he said.

"As the boat beached they found that fellow divers were doing CPR on a man in his twenties."

Paramedics placed the man on the shore and carried out advanced life support resuscitation for about 40 minutes, before declaring him dead on scene.

-Sapa

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Not exactly much more, and I have some doubts about the claims of heart attack in a twenty something year old, but;

Holidaymaker dies during South Coast dive - KwaZulu-Natal | IOL News | IOL.co.za

Holidaymaker dies during South Coast dive

March 22 2013 at 11:36am
By Bernadette Wolhuter

Durban - A Joburg holidaymaker died during a deep-sea dive off eMkhomazi on the South Coast on Thursday.
The man, believed to be in his mid-20s, was a member of the Twin Palms Dive Club in Gauteng and was with a group visiting the Blue Vision Dive Centre, in eMkhomazi, for the weekend.
Dive centre owner Carol Oosthuizen said she was “shocked” by the man’s death. She suspected the diver had a heart attack under water during the recreational dive.
“We do not believe the cause of death was dive-related,” she said, “But we will know for sure only once the post-mortem is complete.”
Netcare911 spokesman Chris Botha said the man was 27m under water when he lost consciousness.
“A rescue diver was with him at the time. He saw what happened and brought the man to the surface,” said Botha.
The man was placed on a boat and CPR was administered on the way to the launch site.
When paramedics arrived they took over.
“But the man was declared dead at the beach,” said Botha. Oosthuizen said the man had been an experienced diver.
“He was a recreational diver, a deep sea diver and a rescue diver,” she said.
An officer at eMkhomazi police station confirmed the incident and said police had attended the scene.

 

[TSandM]

I'd be rather dubious about a heart attack in someone in his 20s, absent a strong family history for the same thing. Immersion pulmonary edema, or bad gas, or another medical problem like a unsuspected aneurysm would be much higher on my suspicion list.

 

[WendyCayman]

Such a sad story! But with these things, its doubtful we'll find out more. If it is something like bad gas... yikes. Who was the operator? Does anyone know the profile for this site?

 

[xyrandomyx]

When the newspapers can't even tell eMkhomazi and Umkomaas apart (hint: one's a good 50km inland), I think we should give up on getting any firmer details on the incident from them.

The op was Blue Vision Dive Centre, according to the second article quoted by Dive Bug Bit Me. I dived with them when I visited Umkomaas: no complaints or problems, but I only dive five dives there. They gave briefings, took us out on the boat, had a DM to tow a surface marker (and made it pretty clear that was their only real job, everything else was left to you and your buddy) and brought us back in.

My guess (based on very limited experience of the area) is that they were diving Cathedral -- a pretty popular site on Aliwal Shoal. It's usually a drift dive, starts off by about 28 metres, you drift north-ish and shallower along the edge of the reef.

 

[widget]

Very unfortunate to hear of this accident, the shoal is a wonderful dive site and I have enjoyed literally hundreds of dives there over the years.

In the meantime theres a few good sketches of the shoal here for those who are interested. Google Image Result for http://www.scubadivekzn.co.za/images/mapaliwalbig.jpg

 

[ajduplessis]

Seems like the diver in question was on a Posiedon rebreather. I wonder why twin palms neglect to share that information? 25 year olds just dont suffer heart failure.

 

[xyrandomyx]

Seems like the diver in question was on a Posiedon rebreather. I wonder why twin palms neglect to share that information? 25 year olds just dont suffer heart failure.

Interesting. Where'd you get that bit of info?

 

[Big Stig]

Poseidon are very open with any issues on the mark 6 rebreather they have a page on their site that indicates the issues and accident analysis. The just posted in the last day or so of what looks like this issue. that it is under investigation. as soon as they have access to the unit and can have downloaded data and profile they will no doubt post the results. in the meantime speculation to the cause is pointless.

 

[vincent54]

Sudden cardiac arrest in young people is a concern and a possibility. I would wait until the final autopsy before speculating. One Canadian study I read recently suggested about 500 people under the age of 40, mostly males, die from sudden cardiac arrest. So I wouldn't disregard this in the differential diagnosis. Cheers