The anatomy of death in two divers.

Abstract

Between New Year’s Day and this conference in May 2001, two divers have died in South Australia. We have a well informed Coroner in South Australia who insists that in any deaths involving divers, either I or a doctor from the Hyperbaric Unit, attends the post-mortem and directs the pathologist on what to look for. It usually assumed, and has been for many years, that novice divers probably die of cerebral arterial gas emboli (CAGE) following panic or distraction causing breath holding during ascent. More experienced divers die of many other things as well as CAGE due to pulmonary barotrauma. Some divers develop CAGE from bubbles passing through a patent foramen ovale after a fairly strenuous dive.