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Woman dies after Truk dive
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A British woman has died after surfacing from a seemingly normal dive in Truk Lagoon in Chu'uk, Micronesia.
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Jayne Bloom, 38, from Stockport near Manchester, had completed a dive on a 60m wreck on 29 June with her fiancé, Jeff Keep. The pair were using Megaladon closed-circuit rebreathers and had spent most of the dive in 47m-50m, descending briefly to 57m to examine the ship's propellers.
Keep has said that they descended as planned, carrying out their required stop, during which Bloom 'showed no signs of stress or anything unusual'.
But after they had climbed back aboard their dive boat, Bloom weakened, said she had lost her sight and deteriorated quickly, losing consciousness despite being put on oxygen.
Tended by one diving friend who is a medical doctor, Bloom was taken ashore, but the nearest recompression chamber was at that time unmanned. It was two hours since the start of the incident by the time she reached hospital.
Once stabilised, Bloom was returned to the chamber for an eight-hour treatment, after which she was transferred again to hospital, where she died after a 15-hour fight for life.
Her body has been returned to the UK, together with her equipment, and a post mortem is expected to be carried out. Results are not back but, Keep told Divernet, medics suspected a cerebral embolism, while keeping an open mind to causes unrelated to diving.
An inquest is to be held. Bloom's equipment was, said Keep, examined in Micronesia by 'three very experienced rebreather divers, one a Megaladon diver'. They had found 'nothing wrong' with the unit.
They have produced a 'full report' for presentation at inquest, he said. It is not clear whether further examination of the equipment will be carried out by a British laboratory.
Bloom was a diver of eight years' experience, had dived on rebreathers for three years and had bought her Megaladon new 14 months ago. She was a certified IANTD Trimix CCR diver, having been trained by Keep, who runs New Frontier Diving in Manchester and is an IANTD Trimix Instructor for closed- and open-circuit rebreathers.
The pair were due to marry in Truk on 5 July, days after the incident. Bloom had surprised Keep with a celebrated public proposal at last October's DIVE Show in Birmingham, after hatching a plan with friend and show presenter Leigh Bishop.
She was invited on to the stand at the end of Bishop's talk to make her marriage proposal, which was accepted.
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