The Last Dive's Chrissy Rouse -- would he have survived today?

[Bratface]

What was interesting to me was how easy it was to recognize DCI as it was happening to them. As a health care provider, that's important to me. Like I said before, I learned some valuable information.

 

[DivingCRNA]

I do not think Chrissy would have lived if he had gotten bent today.

I have never worked in dive medicine, but have been in health care for 15 years and diving for 10 years. I have to admit that I had the same thoughts about his chamber ride. Why didn't they keep him at 160 for a day or two? O2 toxicity is a good reason. Keeping everyone else out of the chamber for the whole time is another. Was the chamber rated to be pressurized continuously for that long? What if they hurt him by keeping him in there that long?

I have to agree with those that have stated he was dead when he broke the surface. I am amazed he was not dead on the deck of the Seeker with his Dad.

Even if Chrissy had somehow miraculously deco'd in the chamber, just think of the hit that his liver and kidneys would have taken. What about neurologic damage? He certainly NEVER would have dived again. DIC (disseminated Intravascular Coagulopathy-an uncontrolled triggering of the clotting cascade) would have almost been certain.

If he lived, he could have would up blind, mentally impaired, on dialysis and in a wheelchair. That is not a thing I would wish on anyone.

The best thing "The Last Dive" does is demonstrate the importance of dive planning. I actually think the most interesting part of the book is the chapter where the author describes his own episode of DCS. He got bent pretty hard and was lucky to live.

Unfortunately, it would seem that it is the Rouse's place in history to demonstrate what happens when multiple problems occur on a dive. Chowdhury and others propose that trimix, radio communication, a line to the anchor, more caution, staying out of the water on such a rough day (Chrissy fell down several times on the way to the water after gearing up), some humility and even in-water recompression might have saved them. But it is all really just speculation.

If you watch Deep Sea Detectives you will notice that Chatterton and Kohler (The guys who did identify the sub) are almost always wearing rebreathers (even in Loch Ness). This technology might have saved the Rouses, but if they could not afford trimix for a weekend, I doubt they would have coughed up over $5000 each for rebreathers.

Of course, all of this is IMHO.

 

[plankspanker]

1) Deep air diving
2) Deep air diving on a wreck
3) Not having enough gas to properly manage the dive profile
4) Having a macho attitude about making a dive.

[edited to remove name-calling]

Nice, so basically you are just regurgitating some stuff you read and not from any sort of background like maybe doing deep wreck dives in the early 90's or at the very least reading enough about that era to realize that what they were doing was not that abnormal. Other than the macho attitude which is never good the rest of your points were just par for the course for the day.

Because of accidents like these people learned what worked and what didn't. If everyone said no to diving deep air back then diving would be a lot different now so I for one am glad people did.

 

[Sharkbait]

Nice, so basically you are just regurgitating some stuff you read and not from any sort of background like maybe doing deep wreck dives in the early 90's or at the very least reading enough about that era to realize that what they were doing was not that abnormal. .

So you consider diving deep wrecks on air, and dying, normal? At no time have I ever heard leaving your wife a widow normal.

 

[plankspanker]

So you consider diving deep wrecks on air, and dying, normal? At no time have I ever heard leaving your wife a widow normal.

Guilty as charged but you completely missed the point or else you got the point and that is all you could come up with. Either way I'm not going to crap up this thread any more. Sorry for the hijack.

 

[scubapolly]

Chris and Chrissy made some major mistakes which formed a chain which lead to their deaths. Most of these mistakes and shortcuts have been made by many others who have not met such a fate.

What we each need to do is read these stories, and learn from them. The purpose of books like these and other sources like the SB accidents and incidents forums is so that other divers can learn from the mistakes of others.

For those of you interrested in learning from the mistakes of other divers I recomend reading "Shaddow Divers" by Robert Kurson, and "Deep Descent" and "Dark Descent" both by Kevin McMurray.

 

[coach_izzy]

I guess we can all learn something from those books since they're based on true cases. I have read "Shadow Divers" "The Last Dive" "Deep Descent" "Dark Descent" and I stopped there. Reason? After reading "Shadow Divers", well the rest pales in comparison, and I'm not referring to content since the material has a lot of potential, but the writing style... Goodness! You can inmediately tell that the only real writer is Bob Kurson...

 

[Dean810]

The point that the author of "Last Dive" makes is that what would have saved them more than anything else would have been a communication system between themselves and the surface. That would have been very cutting edge at the time they made their dives. Should that now be concidered "standard equipment" for the deep tech diver? I know it is expensive, but they did try to save money by breathing air, and even Chrissy Rouse beat himself up for that later. Just thowing it out.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I have dove air to the same depths as Chrissy and his father did. It's something many of us have done in the past. It isn't smart but it happens.

But

Would Chrissy have lived today if treatment was different? He may have survived that accident but I considered them to be reckless and I would imagine they would have found another way to kill themselves.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Would Chrissy have lived today if treatment was different?

As I said earlier, probably not.