The Last Cigarette
The week following a particularly gruesome cave diving accident at Madison Blue Spring, I ran into a fellow cave diver who’d been the last person to see the victims alive. Here is what he told me:
“I was walking down to the deck. One guy was already in the water. The other was sitting on the stairs, his gear already in place, puffing away.
“He looked up at me, smiled, and said, ‘You know what they say: Gotta have just one last cigarette.’
“He then stubbed out his smoke, stuck the regulator in his mouth, and took off after his buddy. He had no idea he’d just uttered his last words.”
You have to wonder whether those words crossed the victim’s mind as he was dying. Probably not. Would it have made a difference?
The victims in this particular incident were found less than 1,000 feet from the entrance — a fraction of the total distance they’d covered. If their gas consumption had been just 15 percent better, would it have been enough to enable them to make it to safety?
‘Tough to say. But you have to wonder…
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