Cave diver pulled to surface barely alive

The Tampa woman wasn't breathing and had no pulse, but was revived. She was diving in the infamous Eagle's Nest, where two divers died last year.

RICK GERSHMAN and SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published September 13, 2005

BAYPORT - Dan Pelland just wanted to take some pretty pictures late Sunday afternoon.

But Pelland hadn't realized the spot he chose to shoot photos was next to Eagle's Nest, one of the world's most renowned cave diving systems.

Pelland pulled up shortly before 5 p.m. when diver Rudy Banks ran up to his car and begged for him to call 911 on his cell phone. He did.

Then Pelland and Banks ran to the water's edge, where another diver was pulling Banks' dive partner, Judi Bedard, from the water.

"She was obviously in trouble, hemorrhaging from her eyes and ears, foaming from her mouth," Pelland recalled.

They cut Bedard out of the harness that held her scuba tanks and pulled her up onto the dock. She wasn't breathing. She had no pulse. Banks and Pelland began CPR. After 15 to 20 minutes, Pelland said, her heart came back to life.

Soon after, she started breathing, he said, but she did not regain consciousness.

Bedard, 48, who works as a registered nurse at Tampa General Hospital, was in critical condition Monday evening at Shands, the hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

"Judi is a free spirit. She's just got so much heart," said Charlene Armstrong, who lives across the street from Bedard on a narrow red-brick street in Port Tampa.

The close-knit neighborhood was in shock over the diving accident, Armstrong said. A couple of neighbors were in Gainesville on Monday night watching over her, while others are taking turns walking Bedard's dog, a brindle boxer named Ellie.

Reports from the hospital were worrisome, Armstrong said Monday evening: Bedard's heart stopped and had to be restarted three times.

Armstrong said Bedard loves nature and often takes diving trips to Mexico and other exotic diving locations. She painted a seascape on her mailbox, a scene of fish and seagrass.

The certified cave diver was flown to Shands because it has a hyperbaric chamber, said state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Greg Morse.

The chamber is a tool to treat decompression sickness, also known as the bends, and air embolisms. Both are dangers scuba divers face when diving in deep waters.

Morse said investigators think Bedard might have had an equipment malfunction at Eagle's Nest. She and Banks, 52, of Williston are experienced, certified cave divers and have several other diving certifications.

Bedard had descended to the bottom of a cave, about 130 feet down, when she had "some sort of problem that caused her to become disoriented," Morse said. She became unconscious as Banks brought her to the surface, he said.

Pelland, 56, said he had been trained in CPR when he worked for a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Chicago, but he had never had to use it.

Hernando County Fire Rescue workers transported Bedard from the remote location in a pickup truck because an ambulance couldn't make it there, Pelland said.

Five divers have died at Eagle's Nest since 1981, and cave diving has killed about 400 people since the early 1970s, according to industry records.

Last year, the caves claimed the lives of Spring Hill's Craig Simon, 44, and his friend John Robinson Jr., 36, of St. Petersburg. They drowned in the caves on a dive in June 2004. But the site remains popular and attracts divers from around the world. One experienced diver described Eagle's Nest as "one of the Mount Everests of cave diving."

On the surface it is an ordinary-looking pond about 200 feet across. Below, however, is a mile of charted passages, one of them 300 feet deep. The cave system includes the "Main Ballroom," an awe-inspiring cave about 400 feet long and 200 feet across.

--Staff writer Lisa Greene contributed to this report. Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or 754-6117.

© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.


Woman in a coma after cave diving

A Tampa woman who suffered decompression trauma Sunday afternoon while cave diving in western Hernando County remained comatose and in critical condition

Tuesday.St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Sep 14, 2005
A Tampa woman who suffered decompression trauma Sunday afternoon while cave diving in western Hernando County remained comatose and in critical condition Tuesday. Judi Bedard, a registered nurse at Tampa General Hospital, had no pulse when she was pulled from the water at Eagle's Nest, a renowned cave diving system near Bayport. She was resuscitated and flown to Shands at the University of Florida at Gainesville. Bedard, 48, is a certified cave diver. She was about 130 feet deep when she apparently experienced an equipment problem, authorities said.

© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

Racing for life, 130 feet down

RICK GERSHMAN
Published September 29, 2005

WEEKI WACHEE - Deep below an algae-covered pond, Eagle's Nest is considered one of the most breathtaking underwater cave systems in the world. Its intricacies have alternately been described as challenging and dangerous.

Judi Bedard never made it to the dangerous part.

Bedard, 48, a registered nurse at Tampa General Hospital, was pulled lifeless from the waters at Eagle's Nest on Sept. 11. She was resuscitated and remains in critical condition at a Gainesville hospital.

The state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday released its findings on what happened when Bedard and boyfriend Rudy Banks of Williston, both experienced cave divers, entered the water.

It was a standard recreational dive on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

* * *

Shortly after 4:30 p.m., they began a fairly normal descent, said the 52-year-old Banks.

Divers must breathe different mixtures of gas at different depths, so Bedard breathed from a tank of pure oxygen until she had descended about 30 feet. Then she switched to nitrox, a combination of oxygen and nitrogen.

About 130 feet down, she switched to her primary tanks, which were supposed to contain a blend of oxygen, nitrogen and helium appropriate for that depth.

They didn't.

Banks realized something was wrong with Bedard, who switched back to her nitrox tank. The two began their ascent, according to witnesses' statements to the commission.

That is supposed to be a gradual process, since ascending too quickly can cause decompression sickness, also known as the bends. It also can cause a gas embolism, the presence of bubbles in the bloodstream that obstruct circulation.

But they didn't have that kind of time. An error in Bedard's tank mixtures left her breathing almost all helium and almost no oxygen.

At 100 feet, she was unconscious.

At 60 feet, she'd stopped breathing.

According to Bedard's friend and neighbor, Tom Lenfestey, Banks was left with a terrible choice: If he ascended rapidly, the trauma to Bedard's oxygen-starved body could be enormous. If he didn't, she certainly would die from a lack of oxygen during the gradual ascent.

Banks, too, risked decompression illness with an immediate ascent.

He brought her right up anyway.

"He knew (he might get) the bends, which is very painful, but you can deal with it," Lenfestey said. "He had to do that."

Unfortunately, "it was the ascent that began a kaleidoscope of challenges, and the injuries under which she now struggles," which included arterial gas embolisms, diving expert Gregg Stanton, who had just completed a dive with a buddy at Eagle's Nest, said in a statement to to the commission.

On the surface, Bedard had no pulse. Her eyes were open. Blood and foam poured from her mouth.

Banks got the attention of Stanton, formerly Florida State University's diving safety officer, and his diving buddy, James Garey, who serves on the University of South Florida's diving control board.

Garey flagged down Dan Pelland, a Spring Hill resident who happened to pull up to Eagle's Nest to shoot photographs. Garey used Pelland's phone to call 911, and Pelland helped Banks perform CPR on Bedard.

Stanton and Garey lauded Banks' actions to resuscitate Bedard, but Stanton noted that Eagle's Nest's remote location and unpaved entrance made any potential recovery far more problematic.

"That the victim was brought back to a self-breathing condition is a tribute to the rescue crew, and in particular to Mr. Banks," Stanton wrote. "His cool perseverance working with everyone brought results beyond expectations."

However, the medical response was "hampered by limited supplies and transport options," Stanton said.

"Taking the victim in on a backboard in (a sports utility vehicle) with no IV drip was surprising, but necessary, while the ambulance and helicopter waited at the edge of the forest. A good 30 minutes - probably more - could have been saved and better EMS care could have been available had a recovery plan been in place for the Eagle's Nest dive site."

* * *

Fish and Wildlife investigator Stephen Farmer agreed with Stanton and Garey that three elements contributed to Bedard becoming injured that day at Eagle's Nest:

--The gas was not properly mixed in her tri-mix tanks.

--The tanks were not properly analyzed to ensure the right proportions of gases.

--The isolation valve - an attachment to the manifold that connects the two tanks - was incorrectly left closed and never checked to ensure it was open.

Banks, who declined to speak with the Times, told investigators he mixed Bedard's tanks.

However, the experts said, that does not absolve Bedard of responsibility for her equipment.

"At the site - before the dive - I do not believe Ms. Bedard checked the contents of her breathing gas. Ultimately it is the responsibility of all divers to test their own breathing gases," Stanton wrote.

"Had she tested the isolation valve, she would have caught that the tanks were not evenly pressured ... and probably would have looked for further problems, leading to her canceling the dive. ... I conclude that she did not complete the safety drills as per the proper protocols."

Banks remains disconsolate after the accident, Lenfestey said, spending almost all of his time at the hospital, Shands at the University of Florida.

Doctors were surprised Bedard survived the first 24 hours following the dive, Lenfestey said. Her kidneys failed, and her heart stopped several times following her removal from a hyperbaric chamber to treat the embolisms.

It's a tough reality for friends and fellow divers who know Bedard as full of life.

"She's high entertainment, just great to be with," Lenfestey said. "She's full of, well, everything."

© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.