On Aug. 3, 2002, plaintiffs’ decedent Robert Barrett, 32, a diving instructor, drowned while scuba diving at the Bainbridge quarry in Bainbridge, Pa. Barrett was instructing a student diver along with two other diving partners at the time.
Barrett, who had been scuba diving for about nine years, was using the Inspiration rebreather manufactured by Ambient Pressure Diving Ltd. of Cornwall, England.
The Inspiration is a closed-circuit rebreather that recycles exhaled gas through a carbon dioxide scrubber, removing carbon dioxide and injecting oxygen at preset levels. The device allows divers reach great depths, stay underwater longer and not produce bubbles via exhalation.
Barrett’s family claimed that he 42 feet below the surface for six minutes and 20 seconds when the rebreather ceased supplying oxygen to him resulting in death.
Barrett’s family sued Ambient Pressure Diving for products liability (design defect, breach of warranty), strict liability, negligence and unfair and deceptive trade practices that resulted in his wrongful death. The plaintiffs’ claims of negligence, breach of warranty, and unfair and deceptive trade practices were later dismissed for lack of evidence.
The plaintiffs relied on the testimony of rebreather design expert Alexander Deas, who testified that a combination of electronic and software failures of the Inspiration’s patented redundant control systems caused the rebreather to stop delivering oxygen to Barrett underwater. As a result he passed out due to hypoxia and drowned. Deas estimated that within the first 45 seconds of the dive, the oxygen controllers disabled and did not distribute oxygen, and the primary and secondary power lines failed. Since there’s no oxygen, the decedent would have been conscious for six minutes and 20 seconds.
The defendant denied that the product was defective and that any negligence was on the part of Barrett. Since the rebreather’s computer data was never recovered, it was inconclusive how long Barrett was conscious, according to defense counsel. The defense relied on the testimonies of Barrett’s three companion divers who said that they were together for approximately 10 minutes when the decedent swam away from the group as they reached the quarry floor. It wasn’t until 38 minutes later that the three divers discovered Barrett’s body beneath the launching platform. Also, Barrett violated a diving standard by leaving his student, asserted counsel.
The defense argued that Barrett’s death was caused by his misuse of the product, failure to follow Ambient’s warnings and his unauthorized modifications to the product. According to the defense, divers must undergo extensive specialized training and receive advanced certification before they are allowed to purchase the Inspiration, which Barrett did. Divers are trained to handle all potential failure modes of the product underwater, including a complete failure of the product’s redundant electronic controllers.
However, Barrett failed to follow the training by not looking at the digital readings on equipment’s cables which display the level of oxygen, according to diving safety expert David Pence. If Barrett’s rebreather had low oxygen, audible warnings would sound in his left year in tandem with visual signals. Barrett was trained to look at the cable monitors every minute throughout the dive but he failed to so, argued counsel.
The three divers admitted that they put their gear on the platform and immediately went into the water without performing equipment inspections, and that they did not see Barrett conduct such an inspection. The defense argued that pre-diving inspections are necessary to ensure electronic controllers are turned on, valves are open and calibrations are made.
The defense diving physiology expert, testified that Barrett was negligent by putting rubber seals on the equipment’s regulators that regulated oxygen flow into the rebreather. This created a “cork-the-bottle” effect by stemming the flow of oxygen. Pressure increases as a diver descends deeper and pushes the seals further into the regulator so the gaskets shut, preventing any flow from the rebreather’s air and oxygen tanks.
In March 2002, Ambient warned Barrett against the usage of rubber seals, a practice by divers to keep dirty water and ice out of regulators.
The decedent also used a less effective carbon dioxide scrubber material-one that was not recommended by Ambient-which did not last as long and could cause carbon dioxide poisoning, the defense contended.
(The jury was permitted to hear evidence that other deaths had allegedly occurred under similar circumstances. There have been other deaths of divers using the Inspiration rebreather, but the rebreather has never been found to be the cause of any death. The plaintiff maintained that two other deaths had occurred due to “battery bounce,” and the jury was permitted to hear evidence of these deaths. However, Ambient was permitted to put the coroner’s verdicts in both cases into evidence. These written verdicts showed the rebreather was not at fault in either death. The plaintiff also was permitted to generally argue that other deaths had occurred due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. However, the defendant was allowed to show the jury that lots of things cause hypoxia, if in fact this was the cause of other deaths.)
The coroner listed the official cause of death as “accidental drowning.”
Adm. Donald Arthur, the plaintiffs’ diving medicine expert, testified that Barrett’s drowning was caused by hypoxia, or lack of oxygen, due to a failure of the product to function as designed.
Barrett’s family sought $1.25 million in lost earnings and $4.5 million for loss of value of life, which was presented by economist Stan Smith.
Stephanie Barrett, who was four months pregnant at the time of the accident, talked about her husband’s death and what it’s like to raise a daughter with no father.
David Sawatzky, the defense diving medicine expert, opined that Barrett’s drowning could have been caused by hypoxia, resulting from Barrett’s unauthorized equipment modifications; hypercapnia, or excess carbon dioxide, which was caused by Barrett’s use of the wrong CO2 scrubber chemical, in violation of Ambient’s warnings, and unauthorized modifications of the rebreather; or heart attack, caused by Barrett’s advanced cardiac disease, heat stress and overexertion.
Defense counsel asserted that it was impossible to determine the exact cause of Barrett’s drowning because the plaintiff spoiled the evidence–the carbon dioxide scrubber chemical and the electronic data from Barrett’s dive computers, otherwise known as the “black boxes” that recorded critical data about his dive.
The jury found that the plaintiff did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Ambient Pressure Diving is strictly liable for the death of Barrett.