PEMBROKESHIRE, UK (31 Oct 2008) — The devastated father and brother of a Haverfordwest woman who died after collapsing while scuba diving in Phuket, Thailand, in April, told an inquest today (Thursday) that they still had no satisfactory explanation of what happened. Louise Jane Killa (39) of 2, Lion Green Road, Coulsdon, Surrey, who had a Liverpool University BSc degree and an MSc at Cardiff, was a very experienced diver whose main hobbies were scuba diving and underwater photography, said Coroner's Officer Jeremy Davies. She had visited many parts of the world and taught diving on organised diving holidays abroad, during which she made many friends whom she met up with on successive organised trips. In April and early May she went on a five day diving package in Phuket, Thailand, but became ill and collapsed while diving and was picked up by a speed boat and taken to Bangkok Phuket Hospital. There she received treatment, including periods in a decompression chamber, but she failed to respond and died on May 8th. Her father, Mr Morton Killa, asked Mr Davies, who had investigated her death, whether there was any evidence that precious time was lost in rescuing her and getting her to hospital. Mr Davies said he asked for information from the Thai authorities but had received no satisfactory answers to his queries. Deputy Pembrokeshire Coroner, Mark Layton, told Mr Killa: "We have spoken to the Thai authorities and the simple answer is we don't know." Mr Davies said: "The information I received through the Foreign Office is all that the Thai Police released to me and I can't find any indication of a proper time-line in it." | | Another diver death in Thailand, another quickie UK inquest and another grieving family left in the dark about the cause of a fatal scuba diving accident that killed their loved one. The Coroner said that a pathologist, who conducted a post mortem at Withybush Hospital, was unable to establish the precise cause of death because of the effects of the embalming process and the absence of data about depth and duration. He said the cause was unascertained and this was the verdict he recorded. Miss Killa's brother Robert told the Coroner that they had just obtained Miss Killa's diving computer which would hold information about the depth and duration of her dive, but they were unable to access it. Mr Layton advised them to engage a specialist diving firm to interpret it. |
