2000-07-13 Incident

Note: this report was not submitted via the standard IUCRR format, and is shown here in its original text format. Non-pertinent information has been excluded and shown as: [-xxx-]

Today, Thursday July 13th 11:30 am I had a bad and tragic experience

During a dive at the Sabak Ha Cenote, Yucatan, Mexico, a fellow cave diver,[-xxx-] died. While doing a dive with 15 minutes bottom time with a trimix 21/20 to 180 feet we descended down a line, attached our 100% O2 stages to the line at 20 feet and continued our descent to do a switch from air to bottom mix at 150 feet. Being 5 minutes at max depth [Victim] gave the up signal initiating the accent. At 150 feet we switched back to air and continued our accent. At around 140 feet I heard a strange sound from behind me which turned out to be [Victim] unable to breathe from his double tank regulators that where fine on the way down and should have at this point some 2000+ psi of air in them. The sound was him trying to breath but can not move his diaphragm. I indicated to him to switch regulators which he did but he still was unable to breath continuing to make the sound of try to breath but unable to. I took him by his harness and pushed gently his purge button to help him breath and check his regulator which was working fine. While doing this we lost buoyancy and went down to 175 feet. He was not responsive and not breathing so I inflated my BCD to get us up to 90 feet, our first planned deep stop after doing the 150 foot stop. On our way up [Victim] was gripping my shoulder harness. To slow our ascent down I deflated my BCD and looking at his eyes which seemed to be half closed and his face expression was like he was in pain, his other hand was pointing to his chest and he was still unable to breathe. His movements became slower and slower untill he stoped moving alltogether. While I was deflating my BCD to stop our fast ascent he let go of me around 75 feet, letting me fall back to 90 feet. I was looking around for him but could not locate him. My search for him took some 2-3-4 minutes and I found him pinned to the ceiling at 40 feet. His regulator was not in his mouth and his mask was half off. His pupils where dilated and he was unresponsive. I pulled him out under the little ledge and get him slowly up to about 20 feet where I had to let go. I did 2 minutes of deco, by now my omitted deco from our plan was quite a bit, not having done 2 minutes at 90, a minute at 40, 3 minutes at 30, did not switch to oxygen at 20 feet for 5 minutes and 7+5 minutes oxygen at 15 feet. I went up to the surface to ask my sherpas if they have seen [Victim] and they pointed behind me where I found [Victim] face down about 25 feet from shore. I turned him around and his color of skin was white, with white foam coming out of his mouth. No blood to be seen, pupils wide dilated, no pulse or respiration. I pulled [Victim] to the shore and told the sherpas to pull him onto dry land. The condition he was in and the fact that he was not breathing for at least 5-7 minutes and we came up all the way from 175 feet while he was maybe holding his breath all the way or being unconcious from at least 75 feet up I made the decision to go back down to start emergency deco. I did 1 minute at 50 feet, 1 minute at 40 feet, 1 minute at 30 feet, changed to O2 at 20 feet for one minute and went back to the surface to tell my sherpas to not touch any equipment, put a tarp over [Victim], one of them is to stay guard while the other one is getting an ambulance to get help. I went back down to do 15 minutes at 20 feet on O2 and 5 minutes at 15 feet on O2. When back on the surface I found [sherpa #1] staying guard and [sherpa #2] off to call for help. I left the scene telling Pedro once more to not touch anything and don’t let any one close. While breathing oxygen I went with my truck to go to the house of [sherpa #2] and the nearest phone to organize the legal steps nececary in Mexico which are: Getting an Ambulance, they report and notify the Ministerio Publico which is sending an investigative team. [Sherpa #2]’s house is some 8 kilometers away from the Cenote where I notified the President of the other cave diving association, Roberto Hashimoto who advised me from a contacted Lawyer to stay in the house of [sherpa #2], waiting for the authorities to arrive. I was breathing oxygen for about 1 hour while feeling worse after a while. No pain, just sub clinical. After about 1 hour and 15 minutes Roberto Hashimoto with Agustin Garcia, another member of the same association and a Lawyer arrived. I reported to them what happened and they informed me that all authorities had been notified and on there way to the Cenote. I informed them that I was feeling not to good and was asking to leave to the hyperbaric facility in Merida some 65 kilometers away. The lawyer agreed and took charge of the situation. I was medically checked and after being in the Hospital for about 4 hours cleared of sign’s of DCS but having sub clinical symptoms not necessary to be treated in the chamber. After I left [sherpa #2]’s house for the hyperbaric facility the authorities arrived dealing with the victim and impounding all my diving gear on the scene for investigation. A friend, cave diver and Lawyer of Rafael, Juan Carlos who arrived on the scene just after I left inspected [Victim]’s gear and found all in working order, verifying our bottom depth of 180 feet and time with 15 minutes. The autopsy was performed about 6 hours after the accident and a heart attack, massive embolism of the brain and lung over expansion injury was pointed out as cause of death. Wrong full death was ruled out and a accident declared, clearing me of responsability and liability.

Andreas W. Matthes -Matt-