Do everything right and you can still die scuba diving...Simon L - Rescue/Journalist
August 26, 2007 at 11:47:17Cindy, you asked about what went wrong. Even when divers do everything right they can still die scuba diving. It's something the dive industry does not like to talk about.
Instead they prefer to cite stats that suggest scuba diving is safer than swimming or bowling or volleyball or whatever. I did a search for "dci" at Scuba Search and found an article by Luther Monroe that states that at least one third of all divers who get bent dive within table limits. To me, that necessarily implies that a safe dive plan must include considerations for emergency evacuation to a hyperbaric chamber. I do not know the details of Lee
Shortt's dive profile but it may be he did everything right and still got bent. If so, what failed in this case was the emergency response system. Given the depth of the Oriskany, the distance the wreck is located offshore far from land-based EMS, and the inadequate emergency support for bent divers, I would not dive the Oriskany. I am not willing to gamble my life on such a high-risk dive site. Here's the CDNN article by Luther Monroe I mentioned: 'Safe' divers are getting bent | 
