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Per your request here is from the morbid/mortallity archives and previously posted on this BBS... "Miami Herald - Henry Kendall - 18 July 99 THE MIAMI HERALD FINDING OUT THE CAUSE OF HENRY KENDALL'S DEATH WHILE DIVING REMINDS US OF AN IMPORTANT LESSON. SAFETY FIRST, ALWAYS Sunday, July 18, 1999 Section: Sports Edition: Final Page: 9C By SUSAN COCKING, Herald Sports Writer The final autopsy report on Nobel Prize-winning physicist Henry Kendall should carry a lifesaving message to all scuba divers - beginner, sport, tech, or professional: you are never above obeying the basic rules of safe diving. While diving with a rebreather at Wakulla Springs, Fla., in February, Kendall, 72, died from lack of oxygen to the brain because he failed to turn a knob to connect to an oxygen supply, according to the report issued in May by Tallahassee associate medical examiner Dr. Benjamin Turner. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor's death was ruled an accident, with probable contributing natural causes. Initially, the Wakulla County Sheriff's Department announced Kendall had died of natural causes - a hemorrhage in the stomach area. That cause was changed to a probable contributing factor after Turner consulted with Dr. James Caruso, diving medical officer with the U.S. Naval Hospital in Pensacola. Neither pathologist could be sure if the gastric bleeding started before Kendall died or afterward, perhaps during efforts to resuscitate him. The preliminary finding (that Kendall died of natural causes) ignited a firestorm between rival cave diving groups in February. Fort Lauderdale's George Irvine, leader of the Woodville Karst Plain Project, accused Wakulla2 - the cave explorers with whom Kendall was diving - of using unsafe gear and practicing shoddy safety precautions. Irvine hotly and publicly disputed the medical examiner's findings. So, why is it important now - five months later - to draw the distinction between accidental death and death by natural causes? It allows all of us who breathe underwater to learn about and, therefore, prevent future diving deaths, whether using rebreathers or standard scuba gear. Kendall, who shared the 1990 Nobel prize with two other physicists, was a founder of the Union of Concerned Scientists, devoting years to keeping scientific and technological advances safe for humans. Yet in his death, he inexplicably bypassed precautions for using the cutting-edge technology. According to fellow Wakulla2 divers, Kendall ignored the pre-dive safety checks of his equipment, paid no attention to audio and visual alarms honking and flashing on his rebreather (which his diving companions pointed out to him) and got into the spring alone. Divers said Kendall wasn't himself that day; they speculate he may not have been feeling well before he donned his Cis-Lunar MK-5 and got into the water. But Kendall, a lifelong diver who has used rebreathers for decades, said nothing to his companions. The MK-5, invented by Wakulla2 project leader Bill Stone, recirculates breathing gasses using electronic sensors to add oxygen and remove carbon dioxide. The MK-5 was the gear of choice for the cave explorers because it enabled them to dive as deep as 375 feet and stay down for hours. It emitted no bubbles, a handy feature to avoid dislodging murky silt from cave walls. Kendall, who took underwater photographs of the expedition, was aided by the lack of bubbles. The MK-5 has multiple backup safety systems to alert a diver to gas supply or mixture problems and allow him to bail out. Kendall had been trained extensively in one-on-one sessions with Richard Nordstrom, president of the company that manufactures the unit. In the water less than 10 minutes, Kendall was found floating unconscious in 4 feet of water by a dive team member. Several Wakulla2 members who are physicians performed CPR while awaiting an ambulance. Kendall was pronounced dead later that day at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. On the day of the accident, the Wakulla2 team issued a news release stating Kendall did not follow established safety protocols and blacked out because of the improperly positioned oxygen valve. When the sheriff's office later released the preliminary gastric bleeding statement, the Wakulla2 team corrected itself in a second news release: "This new information leaves no doubt that [Kendall] died from natural causes, and that his unfortunate and untimely death bore no relationship to either the pre-dive procedures that he followed that day or the dive equipment he used.'' Fortunately, Turner turned the case over to dive medicine expert Caruso for a second opinion. Caruso told Turner in a letter: "People who dive these specialized rigs tend to be extremely anal in the maintenance and pre/post-dive care of the apparatus. The pre-dive checklist is extensive, and following it meticulously is not only crucial but time-consuming. Despite having documented training and experience with the apparatus, Dr. Kendall had established a pattern of cutting corners in the preparation of his gear. . . . Apparently, in his haste to shoot a few more pictures prior to departing the dive site, Dr. Kendall disregarded the safety procedures that are put in place to prevent mishaps such as this one.'' Bottom line: Whether you are a rocket scientist or a sport diver, the rules of safe diving are the same. That's why it is vital to know the facts behind each accident and fatality, not to be satisfied with facile explanations. Kendall, who devoted his life to seeking scientific truths, surely would have wanted it that way. SAFETY TIP DIVING GUIDELINES Whether you are using a rebreather, double-tank cave gear, mixed gases or standard recreational scuba gear, the rules are the same: * Never dive alone. * Thoroughly examine and test your equipment before getting into the water, then have your buddy check your gear in case you missed something. * Do not ignore obvious warning signs of problems, such as a leaky valve or regulator, a buoyancy compensator that spontaneously inflates or won't inflate, insufficient tank pressure, etc. * Do not dive until you and your buddy are sure you have fixed the problem. *Plan your dive and dive your plan. All content 1999 THE MIAMI HERALD and may not be republished without permission. "Miami Herald - Henry Kendall - 26 Feb 99 THE MIAMI HERALD CAVE DIVER'S DEATH SPARKS HEATED DEBATE Friday, February 26, 1999 Section: Sports Edition: Final Page: 13D By SUSAN COCKING, Herald Outdoors Writer Memo: OUTDOORS The death of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist during a high-profile cave-mapping expedition at Wakulla Springs has caused a verbal firestorm between two rival groups of cave divers. And the angry public debate raises safety issues that could jeopardize future underwater exploration. Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Henry Kendall, 72, died Feb. 15 in the spring's shallows while wearing a rebreather - a type of scuba gear that recycles a diver's air supply by scrubbing out the carbon dioxide. At first, members of the U.S. Deep Caving Team, for which Kendall had been taking underwater photographs, believed the death was a diving accident. The professor had gone into the water without his diving partner, apparently ignoring warning systems on his rebreather telling him the device was not hooked up to an oxygen supply. Team members initially believed Kendall passed out from lack of oxygen and died. Officials at Wakulla Springs State Park suspended diving for five days while authorities investigated. Coroner Ben Turner's preliminary report to the Wakulla County Sheriff's office said natural causes, not a dive mishap, killed Kendall - specifically, a hemorrhage in the stomach area. A final report is expected in four to six weeks. But Captain Bill Poole, the lead sheriff's department investigator, said he doesn't expect any new revelations. "We are speculating at this time that [Kendall] experienced some medical condition. We feel like he was not alert to equipment problems,'' Poole said. But instead of putting the matter to rest, the coroner's findings have generated scorn, second-guessing, and allegations of lax safety procedures against the U.S. Deep Caving Team and Wakulla 2 project leader Bill Stone from rival cave explorers. "Stone is running a dangerous free-for-all,'' said George Irvine, a Fort Lauderdale investment broker who leads the Woodville Karst Plain Project. "The risk he's taking on the dives is outrageous.'' Irvine is not unbiased; he freely admits resentment that his team's Wakulla exploration was interrupted by Stone's taking over the site for three months beginning last December. Irvine also is not happy that Stone's $1.2 million mission to create a digital, three-dimensional map of Florida's largest spring is to be featured in a National Geographic Society video and in the company's new magazine. "[Stone] comes in and takes credit for what we've done,'' Irvine said, adding he and his colleagues already have mapped miles of the cave. Irvine doesn't believe a gastric hemorrhage killed Kendall. He suggests the internal bleeding could have occurred during efforts to revive the scientist. Irvine blames the Cis-Lunar Mark V rebreather, invented by Stone and sold for $17,000 by a Massachusetts manufacturer, for Kendall's death - despite the coroner's findings to the contrary. "It's extraordinarily complex to operate. It's a dangerous piece of equipment. It depends too much on electronics,'' Irvine said. His team uses a rebreather manufactured by Brownie's Third Lung in Fort Lauderdale - a manual version in which gases are mixed before a dive. Stone, devastated by Kendall's death, is outraged at Irvine's charges. "George Irvine would be dancing on Henry Kendall's grave,'' Stone said. "He wants nothing more than to destroy anyone else involved in this project. He's unstable, a bad egg.'' Stone, an engineer with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in suburban Washington, D.C., said the Cis-Lunar has several backup safety systems - electronic and manual - in case of a failure. He noted Kendall was a pioneer in diving with rebreathers who had been extensively trained on the Mark V before diving at Wakulla. A former member of the U.S. Deep Caving Team, Mike Bruic, said he had no problems with the rebreather itself. But he criticized what he called Stone's "lax'' training and safety measures. "There were divers on the team who were out of their league,'' Bruic said. "I evaluated the team and I thought they were horrific. Stone overrode it and let people dive. He didn't punish divers for diving alone or for violating safety procedures.'' Bruic noted that two divers were injured in the weeks before Kendall's death, both from using the wrong gas mixtures. "This is a risk-inherent sport, but when you don't cover all the bases, sooner or later something is going to happen,'' Bruic said. Stone bristled at Bruic's comments, insisting he imposed extensive, even militaristic safety protocols, including a decompression chamber on a barge above the spring. But Stone said in an all-volunteer effort in cutting-edge technology, it is impossible to completely monitor the actions of others. "People you have interviewed will die because nobody is perfect in this game,'' Stone said. "No one is immune. You have to do the best you can, be vigilant. All this can't protect you from yourself. An individual has to be responsible for his actions.'' A few years back, before the USDCT-WKPP rivalry was in full blaze, Stone and Irvine discussed combining efforts and resources to explore north Florida's cave systems. Negotiations quickly broke down; neither man could tolerate the other's management style. Now members of the two camps snipe at each other on the Internet (www.aquanaut.com/bin/mlist/aquanaut/cavers/new/). Today, Stone's group is packing up to leave Wakulla Springs, satisfied at accomplishing its objective of putting an interactive cave map on the Internet. Team members had hoped to map nearby Sally Ward Spring, which would have helped determine whether a nearby landowner's plans to build a filling station would pollute the spring. But Kendall's death postponed that project indefinitely. The tragedy might postpone or hamper other projects as well. Private landowners and heads of public agencies might think twice before allowing explorers to plumb the depths of their lands because of liability issues. Irvine can hardly wait for Stone to leave so his group can resume explorations. Last summer, Irvine and two colleagues, Brent Scarabin and Jarrod Jablonski, claimed a world-record underwater cave dive of 18,000 feet inside Wakulla Spring. They're eager to keep pushing deeper inside the labyrinth. "I'm just interested in [Stone] getting out of there,'' Irvine said. "He's in the way of what we're doing. We've been working there 10 years and he jeopardized all that hard work.'' Replied Stone: "This is a scientific project, not a go-to-the-end-of-the-line project. What attracted me to come here was to build a new piece of technology that never existed, and that was the 3-D mapper. Cave diving for the sake of thrills is lunacy. [Irvine] has made this an ugly, ugly sport.'' --- Trey <trey@ne*.co*> wrote: > Coroner said hypoxia. It is amazing how far liars will go to > cover up > something like this. Check with Sue Cocking at the Miami > Herald for the full > story and cover-up. > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Koser [mailto:jkoser@MI*.ED*] > Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 1:23 AM > To: Trey > Cc: Techdiver@Aquanaut.Com > Subject: Re: Henry Kendall Death > > > Abdominal hemorrhaging (stomach ulcers???) was the story we > heard at MIT... > http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1999/feb24/kendall.html > > Amazing how being associated with certain organizations can > make distort the > real story... Just like those 11 or so students that "fell" > off very tall > buildings in the last 10 years at MIT. It wasn't their fault.. > they just > lacked > common sense when they misjudged how close they really were to > the ledge. > > John Koser > MIT <<<<SNIPPED>>>> __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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