West Palm Beach Fatality 59 yo male diver

[DandyDon]

Safety sausages have fittings that will inflate when you jam te fitting into the Lpi hose.

Thanks. I've not seen those. I really do not think I'd want to disconnect my inflator hose on a dive.

 

[Splitlip]

He OkieGirl. I am sorry about your family loss. You may have noticed that this special discussion forum prohibits condolences & RIPs as such interfere with the straight forward discussions and safety objectives of this forum, but sometimes we offer those anyway. We have another Passings forum for remembrances and sometimes our Moderators work to move those there. Anyway, sorry the vacation took a tragic turn, hope he was a member of DAN (Divers Alert Network) and they have been helpful with getting your family member home for services and more. I often say I'd rather go diving than bored at home or something else, with apologies for messing up others dive trip - and I hope my daughter remembers to use DAN to help with final needs.

I don't think that poster was speculating so much as asking as there is so little info from the news, which is often inaccurate, the dive operators often won't provide much under orders from their insurance and attorneys, and even if others on the boat might happen to know what happened - we seldom hear from them. Truly, very few if any really know what all happened in such cases.

So we have this forum to discuss accidents, under moderator controls and rules unlike the news sites themselves, and we often discuss what-ifs, possibilities, and questions in hopes of reducing accidents. It is really not advisable for family and friends to read these discussions unless you'd like to offer info unknown to us.

Otherwise, best wishes to you all in your time of grieving....

Come on Don. Give her a break. With one post she clearly would not be an over opinionated poster expected to know TOS.
I'm sure she is not a scubaboard junkie as she only has that one post. More likely she did a search of her loved one and found this site.

 

[DandyDon]

Come on Don. Give her a break. With one post she clearly would not be an over opinionated poster expected to know TOS.
I'm sure she is not a scubaboard junkie as she only has that one post. More likely she did a search of her loved one and found this site.

Actually, my message was intended as a kind one. I guess I'm not good at that if it seemed otherwise...

 

[MMM]

I've not seen an inflator hose that will supply air unless hooked to the BC? Does yours? I think that is usually done from second stage.

Not so. Go take a look at some at your LDS or on line; it is an option on different models. My own sausage doesn't have one but the DM I usually dive with in Cozumel has one.

I have disconnected my inflator hose twice...once when there was a malfunction and my inflator button was "sticking" and slowly filling my BCD with air, and second was during my rescue training where my instructor had me detach (which was easy) and re-attach (more difficult) underwater.

I'm not sure why you would not want to detach your inflator hose. You can always manually inflate it underwater, provided you have air. I have done this when I found myself UW with an inflator button that had "disappeared" between that and the previous dive. No biggie.

I raise this possibility without knowing the skills of the deceased diver and/or what sort of sausage he had, if any. It's just a possibility I think shouldn't be overlooked in the question of why his inflator hose was disconnected.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Thanks. I've not seen those. I really do not think I'd want to disconnect my inflator hose on a dive.

I think some people carry an extra inflator hose for that sorta thing too

 

[DandyDon]

I said usually; guess I should have said they vary. I've not noticed one that inflates that way, but then I don't look at other gear much. I inflate my orally...

I'm not sure why you would not want to detach your inflator hose. You can always manually inflate it underwater, provided you have air. I have done this when I found myself UW with an inflator button that had "disappeared" between that and the previous dive. No biggie.

I've done. Just rather not.

I think some people carry an extra inflator hose for that sorta thing too

Rather not...

 

[debajo agua]

I am curious about one point. On the news EMS was performing CPR on the diver even though he had been submerged from 10:45 until approx. 3:15 or about 3.5 hours after he was expected to surface. When isn't EMS required to initiate CPR?

I check our EMS protocol for victims of drowning. Basically, it states that a person is not deceased, until they're warm and deceased i.e. any kind of hypothermia can cause the human body to go into a state of low metabolism aka hibernation. Once the body is warmed up, and meets the criteria of deceased, only then can CPR cease (this is per our protocol). However, I understand your questioning. I would say the likely hood surviving submersion in 84 degree water for 3.5 hours is pretty slim.

If you were asking a generalized question about CPR, the criteria for not initiating CPR requires signs of obvious death e.g. decapitation, rigor-mortis, levidity, transected thorax, burned beyond recognition, massive penetrating injury to the head or chest.

I hope this answers your question.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

DD I thought your post was considered and kind. I know people who are raw with the pain of a recent loss can be hurt through words that are not intended to be hurtful so gently mentioning the purpose and format of this forum is a worth while thing to do. We can not expect someone so new here and filled with pain to read the sticky or the forum rules.

I think it is important to remember that loved ones do read these threads and to be respectful in the way we express our thoughts. It is also important for the loved ones to understand that we are trying to learn from the event so the death of their loved one can make others safe. The discussion may involve side trips... "well what if ****" even tho that wasn't the case in this particular event without meaning to imply negative things about the people involved. It is all about education and making our community safer!

I do offer my condolences to OkieGirl, her family, friends as well as the others impacted by this event. We should never forget that it is not just the loved ones of the deceased who are impacted but also the others on the boat and those who tried to help....

OkieGirl I think DD's concern was not to exclude you from this thread but to gently warn you that it might be painful for you to be involved. If you can find some peace and understanding through our discussion we will all be happy to help. If you find the discussion painful now perhaps it will help you in the future. Our Goal here is to avoid having others experience the pain you are now suffering by figuring out how to prevent things like this happening in the future.

It would be of value to know if the inflater was working correctly. I have seen people disconnect malfunctioning inflaters during dives, have done so myself on occasion. Some people seem to think this is no big deal. I personally consider any malfunctioning equipment to be a potential link in a chair reaction I don't want to occur! I would certainly indicate to my buddy so they were away of the issue and make a decision about continuing or aborting the dive based on conditions and buddy reaction. If my buddy indicated they were not happy to continue I would abort .. anybody can call any dive at any time.

What is the general consensus on this? Would a disconnected or malfunctioning inflater cause you to abort a dive?

 

[danvolker]

What is the general consensus on this? Would a disconnected or malfunctioning inflater cause you to abort a dive?

If we discuss this, it could be traumatizing to the family, if they read this. What I hope they would embrace, is that we as a group try to prevent other divers from being hurt or killed, by discussing dive accidents, trying to identify anything that could have contributed to the accident, and with our discussions, we attempt to create solutions to make all divers safer.

Some divers that are unfamiliar with oral inflation of a bc, due to an inflator failure, "may" abort. This level of discomfort, would not be a good thing on the surface, as when a diver gets worried, and this tends to exagerate, they also tend to problem solve with less speed. At the surface, if there was no epiphany about oral inflation, the diver "could" be too heavy to easily tread water at the surface...If the regulator got out of their mouth, this would get ugly, very quickly, especially if the diver tried to tread water in a vertical position, as opposed to horizontal like a snorkeler.

And this may have had nothing to do with it, beyond adding more exertion than the diver's cardiac health could handle, and what was skill wise a non-incident for the diver, could suddenly have become the precursor to a Heart attack...or asthma attack, or something else.

There are still so many possible causes right now, it is crazy to throw around all the "ifs", until there is an autopsy and we know if there was a medical complication. For all we know, this diver may have dropped out of the group suddenly, without warning anyone else, because he did not feel good, and wanted to rest and slow breathing rate...and it may not have subsided. He may have just been tinkering with the inflator mechanism..and then was no longer able to deal with it any more....I say lets end this debate, until we get a real report.

 

[flots am]

I'm not sure why you would not want to detach your inflator hose.

If you're diving an Air/2, disconnecting the inflator hose means that you now have no alternate second stage.

flots.