In Reply to: Thinking out loud about the history of Diver fatalities posted by divinotter on February 02, 2006 at 17:58:02:

Well....I contemplate dive fatalities. I hate that they happen, and it's a terrible tragedy for all involved. But I am a firm believer of learning from mistakes, even the mistakes of others.

I have to agree with whoever posted, complacency and panic are what kill divers. Having been guilty of both..and hopefully learning.

I read about a dive fatality once (One of those Life Lessons back when I still subscribed to Rodales) that had 72 dives. His BC had failed to hold air and he kept inflating and inflating..only to sink and sink and eventually run out of air. This stayed in my mind because very recently, I'd had the same problem. On the Peace with my friend Mike, I'd jumped in and on the surface found that my BC wasn't holding air. The LPI wasn't threaded right, and was leaking. I found it on the surface and was able to get back on the boat...fixed it..and went down a little late and annoyed but no big problem. But yet...this same problem KILLED a diver with the same level of experience as me. (At the time I had around 70 dives.)

I really believe that it helps to brainstorm problems and troubleshoot them on the surface. What do you do if you get into trouble? When do you ditch weights? When do you troubleshoot underwater and when do you ditch a dive?

As a nurse...we practice skills in learning. As licensed professionals, we practice skills. We have fire drills and Haz Mat drills, etc. Just to remember what to do in a "real" emergency. Diving is no different.