Hyperventilate = bites the dust...

[glubglub]

CDNN :: Warning: Shallow Water Blackout Kills

[jimdoe2you]

Everyone should read the article and focus on the section toward the end listed numerically as 1, 2, and 3.

Read each of the three points.

FOLKS, .......THIS IS THE GOSPEL!!!

[azapa]

thats a very sad story, well written. My condolences to his family and friends.

[Bill McIntyre]

I'd like to point out that no one knows, or at least know one I have heard from, that Hatch was a victim of shallow water blackout. All we know for sure is that he drowned. Drowning is the ultimate cause of death when swb occurs, but there are other ways to drown.

For instance, the scuba divers who recovered his body reportedly said that he was tangled in kelp. Maybe he was tangled in his shooting line and kelp after trying to recover a white sea bass that was tied up in kelp on the bottom. Maybe there was a big swell and the surge on the bottom washed some thick kelp over him just as he was started up.

I don't mean to diminish the danger of swb. I'm just saying that the author of this article used his death to launch an explanation of the dangers of swb, but there is nothing to indicate that he knew that it was what caused the death.

When a dive buddy of mine died, we found his body on the bottom at 90 feet. It could be that he was a swb victim and sunk to the bottom, but there were other things to indicate that he died on the bottom from what is known as static apnea blackout. All that is certain is that his lungs were full of water, and he drowned.

[azapa]

Bill, I am so far from knowing 1/2 of what you do on these themes that's its awkward for me to even voice an opinion. I do know that deep drowning victims often have silt in their lungs from the terminal breath on the bottom. SWB victims sinking back down would probably not. I believe BilleBall, a user here, is very clever in these matter.

Either way, a tragedy that good safety would PROBABLY have avoided, and good training COULD MAYBE have avoided.

Safe dives this weekend all.

[sciencemike]

Originally Posted by Bill Mac

...I don't mean to diminish the danger of swb. I'm just saying that the author of this article used his death to launch an explanation of the dangers of swb, but there is nothing to indicate that he knew that it was what caused the death....

Bill i agree with you, I got that same gut feeling when i read the story as well.

As a side note, I like to keep SWB in reference to a BO where a pressure differential occurs in the lungs, from surfacing from deeper water. But thats just semantics.

[Bill McIntyre]

Originally Posted by sciencemike

Bill i agree with you, I got that same gut feeling when i read the story as well.

As a side note, I like to keep SWB in reference to a BO where a pressure differential occurs in the lungs, from surfacing from deeper water. But thats just semantics.

Its not semantics- its the definition of shallow water blackout. Of course if you black out on the bottom without trying to ascend, is still a blackout, and still likely to be fatal. Its just not the classic shallow water blackout in which the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs becomes less than the partial pressure of oxygen in the bloodstream, causing a transfer from the bloodstream to the lungs.

And just in case its not clear, I think shallow water blackout is the biggest danger facing us, and I'm sure not trying to minimize it. My point was that this author didn't really know why the guy died, but just used his death to launch an article describing shallow water blackout.

If that helps increase awareness of the dangers of shallow water blackout, then that is a good thing. I was only objecting to the fact that many people seemed to confuse his article with a finding of the cause of this death.

[glubglub]

Um... I don't get it. So, did he die of SWB or not? The writer does go all over the map with his reporting, but this paragraph caught my attention...

"Register writer Erika Ritchie reported Tim Hatch, 31, of Costa Mesa apparently died from something called shallow water blackout, "a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia, or deprivation of oxygen to the brain.""