Why divers die

In some cases, the diver lacked the appropriate training for specialized activities like diving in the overhead environment of caves or wrecks or deep diving. In other cases, the diver stayed within the scope of his training, but his emergency response skills simply weren't up to the challenge. Open-water environments can change rapidly, and divers who are unprepared, out of practice or physically incapable of adapting to those changes can become victims.

Before you dive, evaluate the air and water temperatures, currents, wave action, depth and visibility, etc. Not all diving is the same. For example, if you are a warm-water diver making your first cold-water dive, the effects of the water temperature can be a shock to you on your first entry. Shallow-water divers are often surprised by how rapidly they use their air supply and by the impact of narcosis on their first dives in the foot range. Fighting an unexpected current while exploring a wreck is no fun, especially if you lack good buoyancy control, the ability to swim in a streamlined and efficient manner or lack the physical endurance to fight that current.

While equipment failures account for fewer fatalities than the reasons above, they are one of the most predictable — and easily preventable — causes of fatal dive accidents. Equipment issues are often obvious before the dive and the observant diver can effectively make a preemptive self-rescue before he ever enters the water.

The best policy is to check your equipment thoroughly before you board the dive boat, maintain your gear carefully and follow all recommended service intervals. To read real-life dive accidents and learn how to avoid them click here. Skip to main content. Follow us email facebook twitter instagram pinterest youTube rss. First there is a triggering event, second there is a disabling or harmful event, and finally there is a disabling injury.

A simple example will help make this clear. A new diver bumps his or her facemask and it floods the triggering event. The diver panics and heads for the surface holding their breath the disabling or harmful event. As a result they rupture their lungs and suffer arterial gas embolism the disabling injury. As a result they can die as a result of the interruption of blood flow to the brain or they can drown from loss of consciousness. Divers Alert Network studied almost one thousand diving fatalities and they determined that the root cause of the triggering event was usually one of the following five factors:.

The shift of blood from arms and legs into the chest, and the relative absence of gravity, that occurs when we enter the water can also be a factor — see my discussion on heart attacks in DIVER December There are several simple things we can do to reduce our chances of having a heart attack and these fit in nicely with the recommendations from the DAN workshop. We should maintain a healthy body weight. Fat people BMI greater than 30 have a statistically increased risk of dying while diving.

We should never dive with uncontrolled health issues elevated blood pressure or cholesterol, heart issues, lung issues, etc. If the former they need active medical attention for some health issue and they should not dive. Once their health issue is controlled, they should be evaluated to determine if diving is a reasonable activity for them.

Several of the other DAN workshop recommendations speak to this. I would add that the physician should know something about diving medicine. They also recommend that you consider the diving implications of any chronic medical conditions you might have.

The final way in which we can reduce our risk of having a heart attack while diving is to attain and maintain a reasonable exercise capacity for diving. As a rough guide, recreational divers should be fit enough to run a mile in less than 10 minutes 6.

There are two reasons this is really good advice. Few people with significant heart disease could attain that level of fitness. That said, anyone over the age of 40 and anyone under 40 with a family history of heart disease should not start a vigorous exercise program until their family doctor gives the go-ahead. Next to heart attacks the most common reason divers die is arterial gas embolism AGE.

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