Korean honeymooner dies after diving lesson at Koh Hei

[TigerandDog]

TigerandDog

Sorry but you are posting nonsense !

" sorry but you are incorrect. They are the same thing. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning is the official name, but everybody knows it as the bends. This is one of the first things we are taught when doing a PADI Open Water course."

Produce one, just one. link which supports what you are saying .

Learn about the causes of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in the link

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Carbon-monoxide-poisoning/Pages/causes.aspx

Anyone opening and reading the link will discover SCUBA diving is not a cause !

who said scuba diving was a cause. NOT ME. I just said they were the same thing, which is what we were taught by PADI instructors in Australia.

[stevenl]

David,

agree on all points about medical bar 1. In my case NO was the answer to EVERY question on health. My age was 42. I HAD to pass a medical before being allowed to commence the course.

As always up to the divecenter. There is no legal requirement nor requirement from Padi, ssi for medical by doctor.

[stevenl]

36 year old fit young women to not "get into difficulty" in one meter of water.

Questions

1. Could the lady swim ?

2. Was she introduced to the safe use of Scuba gear within the confines of a swimming pool prior to being "dumped" into the ocean ?

3. Was the equipment used well maintained and "fit for purpose"

4. Did an instructor enter the water with or immediately before the lady ?

These questions and probably more need to be answered.

Condolences from me to the ladies husband and her family.

1. Technically, as absurd as it sounds, you don't have to be able to swim to be able to dive. Your BCD keeps you afloat. All you have to do is paddle and breathe.

2. I'm sure she would've had a basic introduction to scuba gear.

3. Diving equipment is technically very safe. It's a pressurised tank with an airflow through a regulator. There is very little that can go wrong with it.

In my experience, it sounds like carbon monoxide poisoning. If an idiot is smoking around the compressor whilst refilling the tanks you will get high toxic levels of carbon monoxide pressurised within the air. When somebody breathes that in it becomes incredibly poisonous. The only other explanation is that the dive company are lying and she was much deeper prior to being at 1 meter. She may have panicked and rushed to the surface too quickly and got bent.

An absolutely tragic thing to happen to a young married couple and something that could easily have been avoided. My thoughts and prayers are with her distraught husband and family. Very sad indeed

A pre requirement of PADI COURSES !

"To enroll in a PADI Scuba Diver course (or Junior Scuba Diver course), you must be 10 years old or older. You need adequate swimming skills and need to be in good physical health."

Check for yourself !

Can you also provide links to evidence of "carbon monoxide poisoning" being the cause of a scuba diving death anywhere in the world ?

Carbon Monoxide poisoning (the bends) occurs more often than you realise. It doesn't always result in death, but there are ample occasions when it has worldwide. On my last dive trip to Koh Tao a Swedish girl doing her advanced open water course got a severe case of the bends, and not because she surfaced to quickly (her ascent was never faster than her air bubbles), but because she did not do her 2 mandatory safety stops whilst ascending from diving at a depth of 30 metres. She was lucky there was a decompression chamber available on the island, and the dive boat was anchored only about 500 metres off shore. If there hadn't been one, the severity of her carbon monoxide poisoning would have killed her. She was a very lucky girl, and she was an experienced diver, with over 100 dives prior to doing her Advanced Open Water course.

Wow !

Carbon monoxide is NOT the cause of the "bends"

"The bends, also known as decompression sickness (DCS) or Caisson disease occurs in scuba divers or high altitude or aerospace events when gases (mainly nitrogen) come out of solution in bubbles and can affect just about any body area including joints, lung, heart, skin and brain."

Learn about Carbon Monoxide in the link.

http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/learn/carbon_monoxide_kills.aspx

Stop posting nonsense please

If what you say is correct, then please advise EVERY PADI dive school in Australia and the rest of the world to stop teaching divers they are the same thing. We were taught this on day 1 of our Open Water course. Why should we not believe what qualified PADI instructors teach us in Australia?

Nobody teaches that, you clearly did not understand or retain the theory.

From a Padi master instructor with 20+ years experience in the industry.

[TigerandDog]

36 year old fit young women to not "get into difficulty" in one meter of water.

Questions

1. Could the lady swim ?

2. Was she introduced to the safe use of Scuba gear within the confines of a swimming pool prior to being "dumped" into the ocean ?

3. Was the equipment used well maintained and "fit for purpose"

4. Did an instructor enter the water with or immediately before the lady ?

These questions and probably more need to be answered.

Condolences from me to the ladies husband and her family.

1. Technically, as absurd as it sounds, you don't have to be able to swim to be able to dive. Your BCD keeps you afloat. All you have to do is paddle and breathe.

2. I'm sure she would've had a basic introduction to scuba gear.

3. Diving equipment is technically very safe. It's a pressurised tank with an airflow through a regulator. There is very little that can go wrong with it.

In my experience, it sounds like carbon monoxide poisoning. If an idiot is smoking around the compressor whilst refilling the tanks you will get high toxic levels of carbon monoxide pressurised within the air. When somebody breathes that in it becomes incredibly poisonous. The only other explanation is that the dive company are lying and she was much deeper prior to being at 1 meter. She may have panicked and rushed to the surface too quickly and got bent.

An absolutely tragic thing to happen to a young married couple and something that could easily have been avoided. My thoughts and prayers are with her distraught husband and family. Very sad indeed

A pre requirement of PADI COURSES !

"To enroll in a PADI Scuba Diver course (or Junior Scuba Diver course), you must be 10 years old or older. You need adequate swimming skills and need to be in good physical health."

Check for yourself !

Can you also provide links to evidence of "carbon monoxide poisoning" being the cause of a scuba diving death anywhere in the world ?

Carbon Monoxide poisoning (the bends) occurs more often than you realise. It doesn't always result in death, but there are ample occasions when it has worldwide. On my last dive trip to Koh Tao a Swedish girl doing her advanced open water course got a severe case of the bends, and not because she surfaced to quickly (her ascent was never faster than her air bubbles), but because she did not do her 2 mandatory safety stops whilst ascending from diving at a depth of 30 metres. She was lucky there was a decompression chamber available on the island, and the dive boat was anchored only about 500 metres off shore. If there hadn't been one, the severity of her carbon monoxide poisoning would have killed her. She was a very lucky girl, and she was an experienced diver, with over 100 dives prior to doing her Advanced Open Water course.

Carbon monoxide poisoning and the bends are 2 completely different issues.

Many inaccuracies in your post regarding both carbon monoxide poisoning and the bends.

sorry but you are incorrect. They are the same thing. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning is the official name, but everybody knows it as the bends. This is one of the first things we are taught when doing a PADI Open Water course.

You really have no idea. The bends are officially called decompression sickness, something completely different from carbon monoxide poisoning. Open water course quiz 4 and exam questions as well.

The PADI dive masters at the dive school I went to in OZ and that ran our classes all referred to the bends as also being known as decompression sickness and carbon monoxide poisoning. If that is wrong, the PADI instructors in Australia are teaching the wrong thing. In this case I will bow to your superior knowledge and stand corrected.

[chiman]

Safe diving gear requires professional attention to detail. I quit diving after I moved to Thailand

[oncearugge]

TigerandDog

Sorry but you are posting nonsense !

" sorry but you are incorrect. They are the same thing. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning is the official name, but everybody knows it as the bends. This is one of the first things we are taught when doing a PADI Open Water course."

Produce one, just one. link which supports what you are saying .

Learn about the causes of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in the link

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Carbon-monoxide-poisoning/Pages/causes.aspx

Anyone opening and reading the link will discover SCUBA diving is not a cause !

who said scuba diving was a cause. NOT ME. I just said they were the same thing, which is what we were taught by PADI instructors in Australia.

I am not going to wast any more time on this nonsense !

The "bends" are not caused by Carbon Monoxide.

For the second time of asking ..................Produce credible links which support what you claim !

[TigerandDog]

David,

agree on all points about medical bar 1. In my case NO was the answer to EVERY question on health. My age was 42. I HAD to pass a medical before being allowed to commence the course.

As always up to the divecenter. There is no legal requirement nor requirement from Padi, ssi for medical by doctor.

EVERY PADI dive school in Australia requires a medical if you are over 40, even if you answer NO to all the medical questions. I even had to do another medical on Koh Tao when I did my Advanced Open Water, even though I already had Open Water accreditation, and over 350 dives. I was 61 when I did my Advanced Open Water in 2011, so maybe that was why they wanted another medical done. Unfortunately had to give diving away in 2012 after suffering 3 mini strokes. Too much risk of passing out under water, so have had to quit my 2nd most favourite past time, and I didn't need a doctor to tell me that. That was self assessment.

[TigerandDog]

TigerandDog

Sorry but you are posting nonsense !

" sorry but you are incorrect. They are the same thing. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning is the official name, but everybody knows it as the bends. This is one of the first things we are taught when doing a PADI Open Water course."

Produce one, just one. link which supports what you are saying .

Learn about the causes of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in the link

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Carbon-monoxide-poisoning/Pages/causes.aspx

Anyone opening and reading the link will discover SCUBA diving is not a cause !

who said scuba diving was a cause. NOT ME. I just said they were the same thing, which is what we were taught by PADI instructors in Australia.

I am not going to wast any more time on this nonsense !

The "bends" are not caused by Carbon Monoxide.

For the second time of asking ..................Produce credible links which support what you claim !

read my other posts, I've already conceded to Stevenl's superior knowledge on the matter. If what I was taught was wrong then that's on the instructors not me. Anyway as stated I've conceded that it appears that I am wrong in believing they are the same thing. Although at NO TIME did I ever say 1 caused the other. You need to learn to comprehend English a bit better.

[oncearugge]

36 year old fit young women to not "get into difficulty" in one meter of water.

Questions

1. Could the lady swim ?

2. Was she introduced to the safe use of Scuba gear within the confines of a swimming pool prior to being "dumped" into the ocean ?

3. Was the equipment used well maintained and "fit for purpose"

4. Did an instructor enter the water with or immediately before the lady ?

These questions and probably more need to be answered.

Condolences from me to the ladies husband and her family.

.

.

All valid questions, and when I asked myself those same questions, one that you have not mentioned stood out,

Was the air in the scuba tank contaminated ?

Was the right gas mix used ?

An unknown allergic reaction because of a contamination ? Oil vapor contamination ?

Unlikely (?), but strange things do happen in this country, because there are rarely validated SOPs controlling basic operations in small private companies that run on a shoe-string budget..

The point you raise is covered in my post

3. Was the equipment used well maintained and "fit for purpose" fill the tanks .

That includes the compressors used to fill the tanks !

NB

No "gas mixes" are used in basic SCUBA diving ..........just plain , ordinary , air !

[stevenl]

David,

agree on all points about medical bar 1. In my case NO was the answer to EVERY question on health. My age was 42. I HAD to pass a medical before being allowed to commence the course.

As always up to the divecenter. There is no legal requirement nor requirement from Padi, ssi for medical by doctor.

EVERY PADI dive school in Australia requires a medical if you are over 40, even if you answer NO to all the medical questions. I even had to do another medical on Koh Tao when I did my Advanced Open Water, even though I already had Open Water accreditation, and over 350 dives. I was 61 when I did my Advanced Open Water in 2011, so maybe that was why they wanted another medical done. Unfortunately had to give diving away in 2012 after suffering 3 mini strokes. Too much risk of passing out under water, so have had to quit my 2nd most favourite past time, and I didn't need a doctor to tell me that. That was self assessment.

In Australia yes, that is a legal requirement there, not a trsining organisation requirement.

And here in Thailand, where we're talking about, there is no legal requirement.

[hawker9000]

Unless introduced into a scuba tank while heing filled, why should there be any carbon monoxide involved when a diver experiences the bends?? It's a poisonous gas not naturally present in the atmosphere, not a product of respiration, and not naturally present in the body. So if it had anything whatsoever to do with decompression sickness, where would it come from?? I'm not sure which is more preposterous, the notion theat the bends & CO poisoning are the same thing, or the wild assertion that dive instructors all over Australia are teaching that...

What DOESN'T surprise me is that such nonsense could find its way here onto this forum.

Edited November 19, 2015 by hawker9000

[waldroj]

So sad – and most probably no one’s fault.

The answer now lies in the post-mortem.

Quite possibly cardiac arrest brought on by the excitement of the event.

CPR probably would not have helped, but a defibrillator with the dive staff may have made the difference between life and death!

[Briggsy]

So sad – and most probably no one’s fault.

The answer now lies in the post-mortem.

Quite possibly cardiac arrest brought on by the excitement of the event.

CPR probably would not have helped, but a defibrillator with the dive staff may have made the difference between life and death!

Dafuq.

[oncearugge]

David,

agree on all points about medical bar 1. In my case NO was the answer to EVERY question on health. My age was 42. I HAD to pass a medical before being allowed to commence the course.

As always up to the divecenter. There is no legal requirement nor requirement from Padi, ssi for medical by doctor.

EVERY PADI dive school in Australia requires a medical if you are over 40, even if you answer NO to all the medical questions. I even had to do another medical on Koh Tao when I did my Advanced Open Water, even though I already had Open Water accreditation, and over 350 dives. I was 61 when I did my Advanced Open Water in 2011, so maybe that was why they wanted another medical done. Unfortunately had to give diving away in 2012 after suffering 3 mini strokes. Too much risk of passing out under water, so have had to quit my 2nd most favourite past time, and I didn't need a doctor to tell me that. That was self assessment.

In Australia yes, that is a legal requirement there, not a trsining organisation requirement.

And here in Thailand, where we're talking about, there is no legal requirement.

In the link will be found the simple PADI self assessment form used in Australia !

Please note there is no mention of "compulsory" age related medicals.

http://www.prodivecairns.com/studentmedical.pdf

[Genericnic]

David,

agree on all points about medical bar 1. In my case NO was the answer to EVERY question on health. My age was 42 ( that was 1992). I HAD to pass a medical before being allowed to commence the course.

A lot has changed in diving since 1992.

David

[Phaeton]

I've been diving since I was 13, now 54. Very sad, but I predict nothing to do with the equipment, nothing to do with Thailand. I suspect that this woman had some rare problem. Maybe an arteriovenous malformation, where then the blood vessel burst in her brain? I can imagine the stress of diving for the first time might trigger something like this.

And Tiger, carbon monoxide and the bends ARE two completely different things. If what you got out of your course is that they are the same. Be careful diving please. No snark intended. Carbon monoxide is a dangerous gas that hemoglobin in your red blood cells binds to with ridiculous strength, thereby preventing oxygen from binding. There is no reason for it to be in the compressed air that is in a scuba tank. And very doubtful that is what happened here.

The bends, as others have told you, is caused by an accumulation of nitrogen, that can happen over time at depth. And again, is not why this accident happened. At her depth, this woman would have exhausted the air in her tank before she could even think about getting "the bends."

Tiger, the instructors in Australia are not wrong. What you took away from your time with them is wrong. It's not a big deal. But stop arguing about it here please.

[stevenl]

David,

agree on all points about medical bar 1. In my case NO was the answer to EVERY question on health. My age was 42. I HAD to pass a medical before being allowed to commence the course.

As always up to the divecenter. There is no legal requirement nor requirement from Padi, ssi for medical by doctor.

EVERY PADI dive school in Australia requires a medical if you are over 40, even if you answer NO to all the medical questions. I even had to do another medical on Koh Tao when I did my Advanced Open Water, even though I already had Open Water accreditation, and over 350 dives. I was 61 when I did my Advanced Open Water in 2011, so maybe that was why they wanted another medical done. Unfortunately had to give diving away in 2012 after suffering 3 mini strokes. Too much risk of passing out under water, so have had to quit my 2nd most favourite past time, and I didn't need a doctor to tell me that. That was self assessment.

In Australia yes, that is a legal requirement there, not a trsining organisation requirement.

And here in Thailand, where we're talking about, there is no legal requirement.

In the link will be found the simple PADI self assessment form used in Australia !

Please note there is no mention of "compulsory" age related medicals.

http://www.prodivecairns.com/studentmedical.pdf

Just checked, in Australia medical required if over 45, I thought it was for all ages

[Genericnic]

After reading all the back and forth here, I went back and reread the two accounts of what occurred. Assuming the two accounts are reasonably correct, it appears that the diver had entered the water and was waiting for her husband to finish suiting up and joining her. The details are a bit unclear since one report seems to indicate he was not yet in the water and the other seems to indicate he was. What does seem clear however, is that the dive had not yet begun when she began having problems. If that is the case, it would be my guess that equipment problems, "bad" air, etc. would not be a factor.

I would be interested to see if she indicated any health problems when she filled out the medical questionnaire. Even if none were known, the first dive in the ocean can be very high stress for some people and that could have triggered some known or unknown health issue. I do think that it is interesting that they say that an autopsy indicated no water in the lungs (not surprising based on the report) however there was no indication of any other finding such as a stroke, heart attack, etc. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this and see what else comes to light.]

David

[jaybas]

I dive all the time in the USA. I would NEVER, have NEVER dived in Thailand. I am sure once they investigate, the problem will be contaminated air. i wouldnt doubt for one bit that the exhaust from the generator is in a position that it contaminated the air source. I will snorkel and free dive, but never use any Thai equipment for diving. the laws here are so lax, nothing is safe for diving as far as I am concerned. very tragic.

[F4UCorsair]

36 year old fit young women to not "get into difficulty" in one meter of water.

Questions

1. Could the lady swim ?

2. Was she introduced to the safe use of Scuba gear within the confines of a swimming pool prior to being "dumped" into the ocean ?

3. Was the equipment used well maintained and "fit for purpose"

4. Did an instructor enter the water with or immediately before the lady ?

These questions and probably more need to be answered.

Condolences from me to the ladies husband and her family.

1. Technically, as absurd as it sounds, you don't have to be able to swim to be able to dive. Your BCD keeps you afloat. All you have to do is paddle and breathe.

2. I'm sure she would've had a basic introduction to scuba gear.

3. Diving equipment is technically very safe. It's a pressurised tank with an airflow through a regulator. There is very little that can go wrong with it.

In my experience, it sounds like carbon monoxide poisoning. If an idiot is smoking around the compressor whilst refilling the tanks you will get high toxic levels of carbon monoxide pressurised within the air. When somebody breathes that in it becomes incredibly poisonous. The only other explanation is that the dive company are lying and she was much deeper prior to being at 1 meter. She may have panicked and rushed to the surface too quickly and got bent.

An absolutely tragic thing to happen to a young married couple and something that could easily have been avoided. My thoughts and prayers are with her distraught husband and family. Very sad indeed

A pre requirement of PADI COURSES !

"To enroll in a PADI Scuba Diver course (or Junior Scuba Diver course), you must be 10 years old or older. You need adequate swimming skills and need to be in good physical health."

Check for yourself !

Can you also provide links to evidence of "carbon monoxide poisoning" being the cause of a scuba diving death anywhere in the world ?

Carbon Monoxide poisoning (the bends) occurs more often than you realise. It doesn't always result in death, but there are ample occasions when it has worldwide. On my last dive trip to Koh Tao a Swedish girl doing her advanced open water course got a severe case of the bends, and not because she surfaced to quickly (her ascent was never faster than her air bubbles), but because she did not do her 2 mandatory safety stops whilst ascending from diving at a depth of 30 metres. She was lucky there was a decompression chamber available on the island, and the dive boat was anchored only about 500 metres off shore. If there hadn't been one, the severity of her carbon monoxide poisoning would have killed her. She was a very lucky girl, and she was an experienced diver, with over 100 dives prior to doing her Advanced Open Water course.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is NOT the bends.

I've seen some wild speculation so far, so please, if you know little, or nothing, about scuba diving, don't become a google authority.

Edited November 19, 2015 by F4UCorsair

[MaeJoMTB]

The air cylinder and demand valve she was using need to be checked. Was there any air at all, at the right pressure? Slack refilling procedures with unsuitable equipment can also allow carbon monoxide to get into the cylinder.

Hearing about other unsafe holiday "accidents" are a worry in Thailand.

Having run a compressor for diving, I can categorically state no way.

You poison one fill, you poison them all. And I would fill 30 tanks at a time.

Can't see just one victim happening ever.

Not to mention, CO poisoning is obvious, blue lips and fingernails, about 2 seconds to diagnose.

[MaeJoMTB]

I've been diving since I was 13, now 54. Very sad, but I predict nothing to do with the equipment, nothing to do with Thailand. I suspect that this woman had some rare problem. Maybe an arteriovenous malformation, where then the blood vessel burst in her brain? I can imagine the stress of diving for the first time might trigger something like this.

Not in 1m of water.

That's like suggesting you can kill yourself by holding your breath in the bath.

Edited November 19, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[MaeJoMTB]

sorry but you are incorrect. They are the same thing. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning is the official name, but everybody knows it as the bends. This is one of the first things we are taught when doing a PADI Open Water course.

What are you on?

Bends is caused by dissolved Nitrogen in the blood being released as bubbles when the atmospheric pressure is suddenly decreased.

Nothing to do with carbon monoxide in any way shape or form.

[NamKangMan]

Yet another easily preventable diving student death in Thailand, I'll bet. Another one will die in a couple of months. No introduction of safety culture. No repercussions for dive schools. No enforcement by the professional organisations or the legal authorities. All industry stakeholders only interested in sweeping these events under the carpet and keeping any publicity down to an absolute minimum.

I agree, with so many of these preventable deaths being covered up here.

I think he is talking out of his ass

Ahhh, so it was a suicide, was it????

[NamKangMan]

I dive all the time in the USA. I would NEVER, have NEVER dived in Thailand. I am sure once they investigate, the problem will be contaminated air. i wouldnt doubt for one bit that the exhaust from the generator is in a position that it contaminated the air source. I will snorkel and free dive, but never use any Thai equipment for diving. the laws here are so lax, nothing is safe for diving as far as I am concerned. very tragic.

"I am sure once they investigate, the problem will be contaminated air." - no.

I am sure once they have covered this up, the cause of death will be "natural causes."

Too much money in the dive industry in Thailand for it to be anything else but "natural causes."

Edited November 19, 2015 by NamKangMan

[Phaeton]

I've been diving since I was 13, now 54. Very sad, but I predict nothing to do with the equipment, nothing to do with Thailand. I suspect that this woman had some rare problem. Maybe an arteriovenous malformation, where then the blood vessel burst in her brain? I can imagine the stress of diving for the first time might trigger something like this.

Not in 1m of water.

That's like suggesting you can kill yourself by holding your breath in the bath.

Well in the past year I personally have seen a person bail out of a scuba course, bought and paid for, because she was stressed out watching the introduction video. And a person do one dive, but then bail out of the second dive, while at the surface, because she was overwhelmed, claustrophobic, etc. But like you say, that was not in 1 meter of water.

The whole process seems so foreign to some people that they freak out. And I'm just saying that that stress might then cause existing but hidden health problems to come to the fore.

[connda]

Somebody wasn't looking at their watches and depth gauges. Gas bubbles in you root beer is fine, but not in your blood system. Wait a minute. Reread. 1 meter of water? That ain't bends. Probably gonna take an autopsy to figure this one out. RIP. What a suckola honeymoon!

Edited November 19, 2015 by connda

[SteveB2]

RIP to this lady. What a sad end to what should have been the start of a happy married life.

Many years ago...

I worked with a Korean Scuba company here in LOS specialising in taking honeymoon couples diving as their operations manager and chief instructor.

Korean Honeymoon couples doing Discover Scuba Diving need the greatest of care because... almost none of them can swim at all.

That's right, they can't swim, but they go scuba diving. Its the craziest thing you can imagine.

After the first successful high season drew to a close, the two owners came in the shop immensely happy one day.

They slapped me on the back and announced "this our first year nobody die. You do good job. We take you out next week and give you a big present"

True to their word, the following weekend I was driven to a posh Karaoke well outside my price range, and embalmed with Chevas Regal.

At the strike of midnight, the owners stood up and shouted something in Korean. The KTV manager appeared, clapped his hands and a smiley JLTF girl was brought in, gift wrapped, escorted by 2 sour faced mamasans on either side.

The big Korean boss announced "Mr Steve - you no have wife take care of you - so we buy you wife. We hope you like?"

I'm still with the women now, 17 years later.

>>> To close, I hope that with time, the bereaved husband somehow gets over his tragic loss which saddens me more than I can say - they're good hard working folks the Koreans.

[12DrinkMore]

I dive all the time in the USA. I would NEVER, have NEVER dived in Thailand. I am sure once they investigate, the problem will be contaminated air. i wouldnt doubt for one bit that the exhaust from the generator is in a position that it contaminated the air source. I will snorkel and free dive, but never use any Thai equipment for diving. the laws here are so lax, nothing is safe for diving as far as I am concerned. very tragic.

There are certainly hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dives made every year in Thailand.

Maybe over a million.

I am surprised you even spend a minute of your time in Thailand. The risk of something happening in whatever you are doing is surely way outside of your comfort zone. Better hurry back to the Nanny State and make sure that somebody can be sued.

[NamKangMan]

RIP to this lady. What a sad end to what should have been the start of a happy married life.

Many years ago...

I worked with a Korean Scuba company here in LOS specialising in taking honeymoon couples diving as their operations manager and chief instructor.

Korean Honeymoon couples doing Discover Scuba Diving need the greatest of care because... almost none of them can swim at all.

That's right, they can't swim, but they go scuba diving. Its the craziest thing you can imagine.

After the first successful high season drew to a close, the two owners came in the shop immensely happy one day.

They slapped me on the back and announced "this our first year nobody die. You do good job. We take you out next week and give you a big present"

True to their word, the following weekend I was driven to a posh Karaoke well outside my price range, and embalmed with Chevas Regal.

At the strike of midnight, the owners stood up and shouted something in Korean. The KTV manager appeared, clapped his hands and a smiley JLTF girl was brought in, gift wrapped, escorted by 2 sour faced mamasans on either side.

The big Korean boss announced "Mr Steve - you no have wife take care of you - so we buy you wife. We hope you like?"

I'm still with the women now, 17 years later.

>>> To close, I hope that with time, the bereaved husband somehow gets over his tragic loss which saddens me more than I can say - they're good hard working folks the Koreans.

"I'm still with the women now, 17 years later." - and have been struggling to keep your head above water ever since.