Bill, This will really piss you off, in another articile they claim that Kendall was the first to die on a cis-lunar. The First????? We all know the Ian died while using this death-trap, but I guess Stone has forgotton all about that. The Wak2 people said that a valve was in the wrong position, are they now saying that the valve was "in" the correct position?? All in all, I guess Stone will consider this a successful project, he has been averaging one death per project so I guess they consider this as "standard operating procedure". Barry At 05:20 PM 2/19/99 -0500, Bill Mee wrote: >I was quite willing to drop discussion of the highly publicized and tragic >death of Henry Kendall at Wakulla Springs this past week, until the most >recent USDCT press release ascribing his death to �natural causes�. The >calls from friends and relatives inquiring about this death and the >coincidental connection by place (not organization) with the WKPP were >getting very tiresome. Despite this I was still willing to suppress open >debate on the subject until today. > >Everyone on this list knows the killing modes of rebreathers and the most >potent of these, hypoxia, will make the victim appear to have died of heart >stoppage if they do not aspirate water and �drown�. You go hypoxic, your >brain shuts down, you stop breathing, you lose consciousness and then you >die. > >The well publicized death of Jane Ornstein, last summer from a technical >diving accident (of which our organization was involved in the recovery >effort), was ruled by the medical examiner to be the result of a hyperoxic >seizure. This conclusion was based on circumstantial and physical evidence >(i.e. the deco gas had been breathed at depth) and not on medical evidence. >Basically, the coroner could not determine what had killed her except for >the fact that her heart had stopped. Since the facts surrounding the death >were well documented it was not hard to conclude the most probable cause of >demise and it most certainly was not �natural�. > >People get killed using rebreathers. Should you be forgetful of this >unhappy reality just whisper the words �Inspiration� or �Atlantis� to >yourself. Generally speaking, somebody makes a mistake (diver error) or the >rebreather makes a mistake (machine error). Either way the result is the >same. Death. Both Noel Sloan and Richie Pyle initially confirmed that diver >error was probably to blame based on the �physical evidence�. It is an >insult to all of us and an egregious disservice to all of us with an >interest in SCR and CCR technology to obfuscate what we all know to be true. >Starting up with the �health problems� nonsense is just the worst sort of >lie. > >The death due to health problem excuse is not a new one. In the case of the >Cis Lunar this convenient excuse was used to explain the death of Ian >Rolland (he was diabetic). It was also a convenient (and equally absurd) >excuse used cover up the real cause of death of Rob Palmer. In Palmer�s >case the idea of a spontaneous �heart attack� in mid air as he rolled off >the boat at Hurgada was so patently ridiculous that when it came to light >that a deep air fest was going on the �natural causes� excuse was correctly >discounted. > >As in the Jane Ornstein case here was a death which was preventable if >somebody wasn�t asleep at wheel. She died because the people responsible for >her safety were not there to help when they were needed. In Henry Kendall�s >case it would seem that the same level of irresponsibility and negligence >were also in force. There also was nobody on hand to render life saving >assistance after the accident occurred. If you recall, Richie Pyle >documented a near fatal hypoxic incident at Madison Blue Springs during the >preparation phase of the Wakulla II project. In that case Richie was very >clear and up front about the man/machine rebreather problem and that >correctly was the truth of the matter. > >I can tell you now that neither I, nor any of my colleagues, are going to >stand by and swallow such an insulting explanation. > >Best regards, > >Bill Mee > >
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