Panicking in the middle of a diving course, a young woman loses her life

Drama in the depths of Lake Walenstadt. The facts took place on the morning of December 18, 2022 near Murg, Switzerland. Suffering from a panic attack underwater, a 28-year-old diver lost consciousness, reports The morning. With her were a diving instructor, three assistants and three students. One of them tried to bring her to the surface a first time, in vain. Two divers had to intervene to bring the young woman back to the surface of the lake.

The diver did not regain consciousness

Once out of the water, the young diver never regained consciousness. She died on the spot. The circumstances of the accident remain unclear. An investigation has been opened. At the end of July, a diver had died in Lake Geneva. After three days of searching, the body of this 48-year-old man had been found 104 meters deep. The dive is an underwater sport that presents risks like any extreme sport. According to the website sports medicine the most frequent accident is “desaturation (ADD) (53%), followed by severe barotrauma (15%) and by immersion cardiovascular accident or immersion pulmonary edema (OPI) (5%)”.

“The number of diving accidents admitted to French hyperbaric centers is approximately 350 per year, i.e. 1 accident for 6 to 10,000 dives. The majority of accidents occur on the Mediterranean coast, mainly in summer, with peaks in may”noted the specialized site. “For several years, the increase in practice in winter and the diversification of sites, particularly in inland waters, have led to a distribution of accidents throughout the year and the territory.”