I think "oxygen" is used as a generic term. One newspaper article from the Eagle's Next accident stated the men had used up their "oxygen". at over 200 feet, everyone knows they did NOT even have 100% on their person.
I do feel great sadness for the people involved, I knew one of them.
My prayers are with everyone there. I feel for Edd too, he did all he could.
You people should get your facts straight before you post something like this. Jonathan Gol did not drown.Originally Posted by Howard
You people should get your facts straight before you post something like this. Jonathan Gol did not drown.
Ok, Pirate......what did happen?
This is from another board, posted in November of 2001, under a thread entitled, "Diving while sick:"
Jonathan Gol was found dead in the basin at Jackson a week ago. He was
not supposed to be diving at all. Since he was diving with a friend and not
with the WKPP, there was nobody to stop him. We had him on medical "leave"
from our operations.
As you all know, a few weeks ago Jonathan picked up a viral infection in
South America that caused him to be hospitalized for a week with brain
swelling, seizures, and a serious infection. He was being treated for all of
that and was told not to dive by his doctor ( I know, I know - that seems
pretty obvious).
Anyway, Jonathan was "feeling" better , his friend said, so he tried a
little test dive at Jackson - 45 minutes total in-water - and he paid with
his life. His friend and paramedics were unable to revive him. We do not
know the rest of the details but will get the coroner's report when
available and hopefully it will contain information that will allow others
from making a mistake like this. My guess is that there is nothing here to
do with his gas since that cave is so shallow and the exposure so short .
Anyway, while this is not really a "cave diving accident" per se, it will be
added to the total body count that is sooner or later going to get us all
booted out of everywhere. I see where the State of Florida banned shark
feeding yesterday, and that has only killed a few people. Don't bet against
the public loosing access to caves sooner or later.
Once again, as Casey says, we know the rules of diving, we need to show some
personal judgment on and off the field.
MK7
Always seek the advice of others, but NEVER let anyone else do your thinking for you.
Jonothan died because he didn't analyze and mark his tanks, specifically his O2 bottle. Pure He at 20 feet instead of O2. He had some He left over and bled it into several bottles (one of which was an O2 bottle) before he sent his storage bottles back. He checked the pressure and found he had enough to do the deco so he took it diving. Unfortunately it wouldn't support life by itself. Jonathan was frugal, unfortunately for him he also got complacent that one time and he paid for it with his life.
Prior to and at the time of his death, Jonathan was a mixed gas diver with the WKPP. He was not diving a WKPP project when he died. Several months before the dive trip on which he died, he put 500 psi of pure Helium in an empty 40 cu. ft. bottle permanently marked as an O2 bottle. He put a piece of grey duct tape on the bottle and marked it He 500 psi with a blue ink pen. (Why he did this we can only speculate).
Shortly after he put the helium in the O2 bottle, he got sick from toxic mold that was found in his house. He was sick for a couple of months and when he was well enough to dive again, he decided to go on a recreational cave diving trip to Florida. He didn't analyze his O2 bottle before the dive trip or before the dive. He died of hypoxia from breathing pure Helium.
Due to his having been sick for a couple of months prior to the trip, there was speculation that his illness led to his death. It didn't.
I arrived in Marianna about 2 hours after he died and was asked by the sheriff's deputy to inspect Johathan's gear. I discovered the O2 bottle marked as described above. The bottle was analyzed and confirmed to contain pure helium. Jonathan's autopsy confirmed that he died of hypoxia.
Lesson to be learned from this: always analyze all breathing gas; air, nitrox, trimix, and especially oxygen and always mark all bottles with the gas content, the date of the analysis, and the MOD. Never be complacent with your breathing gas.
Johathan was a good friend and a great person. We miss him a lot. However, he made a stupid mistake that cost him his life.
analyzing gas
Although I have only 4 dozen nitrox dives, I have learned that it pays to analyze the gas at the dive site. Often the mix is a little different than it was at the shop. Gas mixed by partial pressure seems to take quite a while to mix. When one has several tanks of different stuff lying around, analyzing at the dive site becomes even more important.
"I like to do dangerous things safely."
One of my dive buddies has dove with Smith in that system on occasion and gave me a few more details about the incident. One of the sadder things he found out was that the victim and his wife had already signed up to take a cavern class the following weekend. What a shame.
An adventure is never fun while it's happening
I agree!!!
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