MONTEREY, California (22 Nov 2005) -- Billed as "the only PADI 5-Star Career Development Center and the largest scuba diving superstore in Northern California", Diver Dan's almost became the only dive shop in the area to have one of its students die during an entry-level scuba certification course. Kimberly Pratt almost drowned during a training dive when she encountered problems after removing her regulator from her mouth to manually inflate her BC, a required skill for completion of the PADI Open Water course. Pratt says she was left alone when the accident happened, a violation of PADI training standards and procedures which require scuba diving instructors to stay with open water students at all times during underwater training sessions. Owner Dan King and Diver Dan's staff are not commenting on Pratt's statements to the media that she never should have been left alone underwater. Pratt, a fifth-grade teacher at Union Citys Cabello Elementary School, was found unconscious on the sea floor after other student divers in the class surfaced and an instructor noticed one was missing. Pratt had no pulse when the dive instructor got her to shore and started CPR. After paramedics from the Monterey Fire Department arrived, she was transported by ambulance to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula where she is recovering. Hospital tests including a CT scan show no brain damage from loss of oxygen. Pratt became interested in learning to scuba diver earlier this year when she was selected to take part in NOAA's Teacher at Sea program. | | Owner Dan King is not commenting on allegations that Diver Dan's violated PADI standards and procedures by leaving a student diver alone underwater during a PADI Open Water course training dive. After 20 days at sea aboard the NOAA research vessel MacArthur II, Pratt said she wanted to learn to dive to observer marine wildlife underwater. But after her near-death experience with Diver Dan's, Pratt says she never wants to go scuba diving again. "When Im back around the water, Ill be fine," she told reporters. "As long as I dont go underneath." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
