Inquest: Rapid ascent, air embolism killed novice diver

TRALEE, Ireland (4 Nov 2008) — An inquest has heard how a 49-year-old English woman died at the start of a diving holiday with her family off the Magharee Islands, off Co Kerry, last year, when she surfaced too quickly.
Janice Wiggins, The Orchards, Meadow Road, Walton, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, and her husband, David Ralph Wiggins, had decided to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary with their son, Thomas (17), by learning how to scuba dive on a holiday, Mr Wiggins told the coroner's court in Tralee yesterday.
All three learned the theory of diving and he and Thomas went on to complete their open water qualification in the UK. However, Mrs Wiggins "did did not like dark, cold water" and she completed this part of her diving qualification in Egypt, Mr Wiggins said. This pattern was repeated in Christmas 2006 when the family obtained their advanced diver qualifications.
Mrs Wiggins completed a further course with dry suits to give her the skills for a diving holiday in Ireland. She was medically fit and cautious, her husband said.
On August 6th, 2007, they set off for their first day's dive with a group from the Harbour House Diving Centre, Fahamore, in Castlegregory, Co Kerry. They had booked to go diving twice a day for the next five days.
The first dive by the group of 12 went well and after a rest of about half an hour they moved further along the coast to the area known locally as "The Post Box" off the islands of the Magharees.
However, during this second dive, the dive leader lost sight of the family, made them resurface after a short time and checked their air and then told Mr and Mrs Wiggins to form a buddy pair. They descended again to 15m below water but "lost buoyancy". Janice went "straight to the top", while Mr Wiggins rested at 5m from the top, and after two to three minutes he joined his wife on the surface.

She had become tired and he went to offer her support but she sank out of sight and grabbed his regulator. Mr Wiggins said they were not experienced divers. He also said he was satisfied the dive crew did all that was necessary.
The dive boat was alongside immediately and Mrs Wiggins was found within minutes lying on her back on the sea bed. The regulator was not in her mouth and her (air) tank was empty, the inquest was told.
She was given emergency oxygen and resuscitation all the way to the shore, but at about 2.30pm she was pronounced dead at the diving centre.
Consultant pathologist Dr Kenneth Feeley, who carried out the postmortem at Kerry General Hospital, said the immediate cause of death was drowning.
However he had found "extensive" air bubbles throughout her system. This was characteristic of decompression. The cause of death was drowning due to air embolism, caused by decompression due to ascent without a safety stop at 5m, he said.
Coroner Helen Lucey recommended a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence that cause of death was due to drowning, due to air embolism due to decompression.