Monday, January 17, 2005

Update from Boesmansgat

There has been some further news on the status of Don Shirley who suffered a severe DCS during the recent attempt to recover the body of Deon Dreyer, which ended in the tragic loss of David Shaw.

It seems that Don may now be on his way to recovery. He has undergone eight chamber treatments, the first treatments were on the Comax 30 tables although the later ones used Tables 5 and 7. He can now walk without someone to assist him, and can move his eyes and head without much of a problem.

Additionally, the bodies of both David Shaw and Deon Dreyer were retrieved a few days after the recovery attempt by Peter Herbst and Petrus Roux, who went into the water to collect the decompression cylinders used during the dive.

Attaching lift bags to the line to bring the cylinders to the surface also brought the bodies of the two divers with them as the cave reel that had been attached to Deon was also snagged on David, and when David's BCD became bouyant both were lifted to the surface. The video camera that was strapped to David's head during the dive was also recovered.

My best wishes go to Don Shirley and his wife, along with my continued sympathies to the family of David Shaw. More information about the dive can be found on the IANTD South Africa site.

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