Report on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities and Project Dive

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6. Breath-HoldingIncidents6.1 IntroductionBreath-hold diving as discussed in this section pertains to in-wateractivity involving some diving equipment but the absence of selfcontainedor surface-supplied breathing gas. Breath-hold diversmay operate in a wide range of environments, pursue an assortmentof goals, and wear various combinations and designs of suit, weightbelt, mask, snorkel and/or fin(s).Section 6 - Breath-Holding IncidentsBreath-hold diving is gaining popularity as an underwater sport.Potentially physically challenging, serious injury or death can resultf rom hypoxic loss of consciousness or other complications.Development of a formal program to collect and disseminate informationregarding breath-hold injuries and fatalities is desirable toimprove both awareness, training and procedural development.DAN has maintained a diving incident database since 1987. Whilebreath-hold / freediving / snorkeling incidents fall outside the originalpurview, some cases have been reported to DAN. This is thefirst annual report to incorporate a review of breath-hold data. Ourintention is to summarize all of the data now held. We will initiatea new dedicated surveillance program targeting injuries and incidentsin breath-hold diving in the upcoming year and provide standardsummaries of the incoming data in future reports.The purpose of incident data collection and analysis is not to assignblame but to learn from past events. Some accidents are just that –unfortunate events that can occur even when sound experience,planning, equipment and support are in place. These cases serve asa reminder of the fundamental risks and remind us to take as muchcare as we can in all things. Other accidents arise from flaws – flawsin equipment maintenance, equipment use, training, or procedures.These cases may demonstrate the necessity to make changes thatcan reduce the risk for all participants in the future. One of the challengesof accident reviews is that all the facts are very rarely known.The effort can require a substantial amount of deductive reasoningand occasionally some guesswork to interpret events.DAN’s <strong>Report</strong> on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities and Project Dive Exploration: 2005 Edition 91
Section 6 - Breath-Holding IncidentsIn this review, we will summarize the known data and describe thecommon hazard patterns that appear in the records. The casereports found in Appendix C will provide brief summaries of documentedinformation. The reader will be left to interpret these cases– hopefully with critical consideration of his or her own practices.6.2 Available RecordsThe available records for 1994-2004 incidents were augmentedthrough internet searches and reviewed. A total of 172 separate incidentswere referred to in the files. Cases were excluded from thisreview if some written record confirming the actual date of theevent could not be found, or if the reported event occurred outsideof North America and the available information was too limited tobe evaluated (note: future data collection will likely focus on eventsoccurring within North America and the Caribbean region).One hundred forty-five cases were included in this summary.Comprehensive records were generally available for only rare highprofile events. Virtually all of the reported cases (98 percent, n=142)involved fatalities. The three injury cases included two sharkattacks and one near drowning.Incidents were reported in 19 different countries. Seventy-five percent(n=108) occurred in the United States. Ninety percent of theU.S. incidents occurred in three states: Hawaii (34 percent; n=37),Florida (31 percent; n=34) and California (24 percent; n=26). Theconcentration on U.S. incidents reflects the limited focus of theavailable reports rather than a true worldwide pattern. The distributionof U.S. incidents does reflect the popularity of breath-holdactivities in certain states. It is also possible, however, that the popularityof diving in specific areas has produced a greater awarenessof DAN’s effort in incident data collection and a submission of morecases. This could contribute to an overrepresentation of theseregions.Categorical descriptions of the primary activity of the incident victimwere available in 67 percent of the cases (n=97). The categoriesof the known cases can be seen in Figure 6.2-1. Snorkeling is thebroadest category, including anyone wearing mask, snorkel and fins(but with no additional air supply) in the water. Snorkelers mayremain completely on the surface or participate in some breath-holddiving from the surface. Freedivers typically wear a mask and someform of fin or fins only and direct their activity to breath-hold div-92DAN’s <strong>Report</strong> on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities and Project Dive Exploration: 2005 Edition
Page 2 and 3:
Report on Decompre
Page 4 and 5:
DAN Regions and Regional Coordinato
Page 6 and 7:
DAN - Your DiveSafety AssociationDA
Page 8 and 9:
DAN - Your Dive Safety AssociationD
Page 10 and 11:
DAN - Your Dive Safety AssociationW
Page 12 and 13:
DAN - Your Dive Safety AssociationS
Page 14 and 15:
DAN - Your Dive Safety AssociationA
Page 16 and 17:
DAN - Your Dive Safety AssociationD
Page 18 and 19:
DAN - Your Dive Safety AssociationT
Page 20 and 21:
1. INTRODUCTIONDivers Alert Network
Page 22 and 23:
Section 1. Introduction1.3 Diving F
Page 24 and 25:
2.2 PDE 2003This report includes da
Page 26 and 27:
Section 2 - Project Dive Exploratio
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Figure 2.4-2 describes the breathin
Page 34 and 35:
Figures 2.5-2 and 2.5-3 indicate th
Page 36 and 37:
Towards the end of the series, PDE
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43: Section 2 - Project Dive Exploratio
Page 44 and 45: Case #2The diver was a 29-year-old
Page 46 and 47: 3. Dive InjuriesSection 3 - Dive In
Page 48 and 49: Section 3 - Dive InjuriesFigure 3.1
Page 50 and 51: Section 3 - Dive Injuriesmost sever
Page 52 and 53: Section 3 - Dive Injuries3.3 Physic
Page 54 and 55: Section 3 - Dive Injuries3.4 Charac
Page 56 and 57: Section 3 - Dive InjuriesDays in Di
Page 66 and 67: Section 3 - Dive InjuriesCase (diag
Page 68 and 69: 4. Dive FatalitiesDeath while divin
Page 70 and 71: Section 4 - Dive FatalitiesFigure 4
Page 74 and 75: Section 4 - Dive FatalitiesOur data
Page 80 and 81: Section 4 - Dive Fatalities4.4-1Dis
Page 82 and 83: Figure 4.4-2Report
Page 84 and 85: Section 4 - Dive FatalitiesConclusi
Page 86 and 87: Figure 5.1-2 shows the proportion o
Page 88 and 89: Figure 5.1-6 shows a comparison of
Page 90 and 91: Figures 5.2-3 and 5.2-4 show how th
Page 94 and 95: Section 6 - Breath-Holding Incident
Page 100 and 101: Appendix A: Dive Injury Case <stron
Page 102 and 103: Appendix A: Injury Case Rep
Page 108 and 109: Appendix B: Dive Fatality Case <str
Page 110 and 111: Appendix B: Fatality Case R
Page 130 and 131: Appendix C: Breath-Hold IncidentCas
Page 132 and 133: Appendix C: Breath-Holding Incident
Page 134 and 135: Glossarymatical models to compute d
Page 136 and 137: GlossaryRepresentative SampleA grou
Page 138 and 139: 2004 Publications2004 PublicationsR
Page 140 and 141: NotesDAN’s Report</strong
Page 142:
The only 24-hour, worldwide dive em
show all

Report on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities and Project Dive

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?