[Paddlewise] Lake Erie kayaking death

On Saturday, 28 November 1998, Thanksgiving Day weekend, 
Captain Tom "Rhino" Hancock died on Lake Erie off Cleveland, 
Ohio, where he had spent the holiday with family.  "The Rhino" was 
an old Navy buddy of mine, and had taken up paddling only during 
the last year. Following that incident, I wrote up some preliminary 
reports on his death, but wanted to wait until the Coroner's and the 
Ohio Department of Natural Resources' report was released to put 
out the final, official word.  Bureaucracy has relented, that report 
has now been released --- and there are no real surprises.  (Please 
accept the originator's permission to reprint or pass this post on to 
other paddlers in its complete form.)

For a brief review, Rhino went out on a solo paddle to "the crib", a 
highly visible structure about three miles offshore that serves as an 
undewater inlet for Cleveland's water supply.  It's something of a 
landmark in the area, apparently.  (He had tried to go out to the 
crib three weeks earlier, but had turned back because of fatigue.)  
The day of his death, he was wearing a blue drysuit, a yellow type 
III PFD, skirt, booties and gloves, and was found three quarters of a 
mile east of the crib, separated from his boat, a yellow over white 
fiberglass Necky sea kayak (hull number GNK08246G298 --- a new 
boat) with his paddle attached to the boat by means of a paddle 
leash.  The water temperature was 50 degrees F. at the crib intake 
point, 35 feet below the surface; we can presume that the water 
temperature at the surface would probably have been closer to 45 
degrees F.  Winds were light and there was only low chop.  The 
boat was found at a considerable distance from the body.

So what went wrong?  We can only speculate, but the air 
temperature was rising during the day through the 50s F., and we 
can guess that Rhino was overheating because, at some point 
during the paddle, he unzipped his drysuit at the top, leaving an 
opening estimated to be six to eight inches long --- not an 
inadvertent failure to snug up of the zipper, but something clearly 
meant to allow thermal venting.  (The relief zipper on his suit was 
closed.)  When he capsized --- reasons unknown --- he was met 
with the cold shock of nominally 45 degree F. water on his face 
and unprotected head followed immediately by a rush of numbing 
water into his drysuit.  (The investigating officer observed that Rhino 
was wearing "a gray tee shirt" under his drysuit; subsequent 
interviews and investigations have not turned up more details on 
what if any insulation he was wearing under the suit, but no amount 
of dry insulation would have provided any effective long term 
insulation with a drysuit flooded by a six inch opening.  The 
flushing of water through an opening of that size would have 
obviated any "wetsuit" insulation effect provided by the membrane 
of the drysuit and even the thickest synthetic pile or wool.)

So the final question: what was the cause of death?  The Coroner's 
report states that Rhino died of "immersion hypothermia and 
drowning".  From some familiarity with cold water paddling, we can 
assume that hypothermia resulted in a loss of physical control 
which then resulted in drowning.  Earlier suggestions of cardiac 
arrest were, apparently, incorrect.  He became hypothermic and 
eventually drowned.

What went wrong?  In this case, there are a few things that jump 
out.  

	-  Rhino was a relatively new paddler. (He and I had discussed 
sea kayaking in the past, and I knew that he had been interested in 
becoming involved in the sport; the reports and conversation with 
the family indicated that he did have at least some sea kayaking 
training.  We lost contact after his retirement from the Navy a 
couple of years ago.)  But he had only one year's experience and 
was paddling alone, offshore, in "cold water" conditions.  Whether 
or not we choose to see that as significant in general, it was a 
specific contributing factor in Rhino's death.  Had he been with a 
partner, an assisted rescue might have been attempted; ambient 
conditions were generally benign, other than the water termperature.

	-  While he seemed at least partially equipped for cold water 
paddling --- the new Necky kayak, a drysuit, a skirt, appropriate 
PFD, gloves and booties --- he was not wearing head protection, 
nor was he reported to have had any with him on this trip.  Of much 
greater significance, and we can easily speculate as the prime 
contributor to his death, his drysuit was not fully zipped closed.  
Again, speculation, he may have felt that he would have time to zip 
the suit back up should he encounter trouble.  But the cold shock 
to his unprotected head and the sudden and immediate incursion of 
cold water into the suit --- coupled with the fact that his PFD would 
have ridden up sufficiently to cover the drysuit opening --- probably 
incapacitated him immediately, making it impossible for him to 
close his suit.  (Assuming he could have closed the suit back up 
after it flooded, appropriate thermal insulation --- had he been 
wearing it --- might have extended his survivability to some degree, 
but this seems unlikely.)

Lessons-learned: in "cold water" paddling --- however we choose to 
define "cold" --- a drysuit is of no value if it is not fully zipped at all 
times when on the water.  Adequte head and neck protection in the 
form of a neoprene hood or a hood of Malden Mills "Thermal 
Stretch" or "Rubberized Thermal Stretch" or similar composite 
material, is absolutely essential, and should arguably be worn at all 
times when on the water.  (There are proponents of carrying a hood 
as opposed to wearing one; there is evidence in this case that 
suggests, since Rhino could not close the zipper in his drysuit, he 
might well not have been able to put on a hood, once in the water, 
if he had had one with him.  Of greater significance, once he had 
capsized and was in the water, the initial damage of cold shock 
had begun, with the intense head and facial pain of cold water entry 
and consequent disorientation contributing directly to his inability 
to recover on his own.)  And we can speculate that, even if the 
zipper on his drysuit had been closed, the lack of thermal 
protection to his head and neck --- where a swimmer loses the vast 
majority of body heat in any event --- and the apparent absence of 
thermal insulation under his drysuit would have induced 
hypothermia and resulted in death by drowning almost as quickly 
as it probably did in this case.  Conversely, had he had his drysuit 
fully zipped, had he been wearing a hood of neoprene or 
functionally equivalent composite material, and had he had 
appropriate  thermal insulation under his drysuit, his capsize under 
the existing environmental conditions could easily have resulted in 
a self rescue or a survivable float until assisted rescue could have 
occurred.

The bottom line: I joined a few hundred people --- family and many 
friends --- to bury an old Navy buddy at Arlington National 
Cemetary on a cold, bright morning last December.  The ceremony 
was impressive --- the flag-draped casket on a horse drawn gun 
caisson, an honor guard, a band --- with full military honors and 
taps called away by a bugler.  But it was an unnecessary trip to 
Arlington.  It could have been prevented by the buddy we went 
there to honor.

If something good ever comes out of incidents like this, you've read 
about a preventable death of a fellow sea kayaker, and maybe 
you'll build the contributing factors to the event into your 
preparation for your next trip.  Thanks for reading this note --- I 
hope it wasn't as much of a terrible use of time for you as listening 
to that bugler was for me.

Jack Martin

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