August 2010    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 25, No. 8   What's this?

Diving More Deadly Over Age 50?

media sensationalism obfuscates the truths

from the August, 2010 issue of Undercurrent  

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Aviva Diodato came from Surprise, AZ to the Florida Keys for a dive trip with Islamorada’s Key Dives in April, but things did not go as planned. According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the group began its first dive of the day to the Eagle wreck when Diodato, 51, indicated she wanted to return to the surface. The instructor helped her to the surface, then returned to the group underwater. Diodato made it back to the stern of the Giant Stride and was removing her gear when she started to drift. When crew couldn’t reach her, they banged on the ladder to call divers to the surface. Once they were on board, the boat went after Diodato. They found her 20 minutes later, floating on the surface, not breathing. The crew pulled her onto the boat and started CPR but her heart had stopped.

At the time of her death, Diodato was the third diving fatality in the Florida Keys this year. And like her, the two other victims were in their 50s. Monroe County Medical Examiner’s records dating back to September 2008 show that 10 of the 16 divers who died during that time were at least 50 years old. So, when this information was reported in an April issue of the Key West Citizen, it was entitled: “50s More Deadly for Divers.” The same month, an article in the London newspaper The Telegraph was headlined: “Extreme Sports Killing the Elderly.” It reported that nearly 20 percent of all injury claims resulting from sports like diving and skiing, were made last year by Britons aged 70 or older, compared to just 5 percent in 2006. A third of the 212 people in British diving incidents requiring medical treatment last year were over 50, a significant increase compared to previous years. ...