12:40 PM MONDAY: The diving student pulled from the water near Seacrest on Sunday afternoon did not survive. We’ve just learned that from the Seattle Police report on the incident; as we had noted in an update on the original coverage this morning, Harborview Medical Center said the woman’s family had exercised its right to ask the hospital not to release information, but the police report says the woman, in her early 20s but not yet publicly identified, was declared dead less than two hours after she was rescued. The report includes more information on what happened: Police spoke with the instructor, who, according to the report:
… relayed that he was leading a scuba class with three student divers. (He) told us that once he realized visibility under water was very poor, he made the decision to surface and bring all three student divers back up. (He) signaled and said that all three divers gave a thumbs-up, saying that they understood and would also be resurfacing. Upon reaching the surface, (the instructor) counted only two of the students but could not locate the third. The third student was (the victim). The instructor said that they made it back into shore and two of the other divers got new oxygen tanks to go locate (the victim … while someone) called 911.
The report says that after the rescue operation was under way, a civilian diver found the missing diver in 69 feet of water (yesterday’s information had said it was about 40). She was brought to the surface at about 1:05 pm and CPR began; as noted in our coverage, she was rushed to Harborview right about then in Seattle Fire Medic (Unit) 32. The report says she was declared dead at 2:37 pm.
Our archives show that this is the first diver death in the Seacrest area in four and a half years; the previous one also involved a diver who got into trouble during a class and on a Sunday, 29-year-old Tareq Saade. He was described in our coverage of that incident as having been part of an “advanced dive class.” In yesterday’s incident, according to the police report, another diver in the class told officers that it was their second day of instruction.
11:35 PM TUESDAY: The King County Medical Examiner has identified the diver who died as 22-year-old Patricia Flores-Perez. Her cause of death is listed as accidental drowning.
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