A babymoon couple died while snorkeling in Hawaii, raising questions about the dangers of the equipment often used for the vacation activity.
Ilya, 25, and Sophia Tsaruk, 26, of Snohomish, Washington, drowned Saturday while snorkeling in unguarded waters off the coast of Maui, Hawaii. Family and experts suspect their deaths were due to the use of full-face snorkel masks.
There have been several reported snorkeling accidents over the years, including fatalities, associated with the use of full-face snorkel masks. concerns about the equipment and effectiveness of the mask’s CO2 filter system.
Using scuba gear that covers the entire face can result in rebreathing most of what you have exhaled (mainly carbon dioxide).
This leads to hypercapnia and hypoxemia. Both conditions occur when there is too much carbon dioxide in the blood. This can lead to breathing problems and respiratory failure.
Ilya, 25, and Sophia Tsaruk, 26, of Snohomish, Washington, drowned Saturday while snorkeling in unguarded waters off the coast of Maui, Hawaii. Their cause of death was believed to be related to the use of full-face snorkel masks.
There have been several reported snorkeling accidents, including fatalities, associated with the use of full-face snorkel masks, raising concerns about the equipment and effectiveness of the mask’s CO2 filtration system.
The young couple were on vacation to celebrate the birth of their upcoming second child when the tragedy occurred
“I felt like the mask was suffocating me and I had to tear it off to breathe,” said Ilya’s sister-in-law Taisiya Tsaruk, who was on holiday with the now deceased couple.
‘I do believe it played a role [in their deaths]. Because, like I said, I started having trouble breathing in the mask and we were wearing the same masks,” she added.
Full face snorkel masks are widely used in holiday destinations, especially by ‘tourist divers’. They have been deployed as personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although these masks offer a ‘convenient’ alternative to the traditional mask and snorkel combination, there are concerns about the possibility of rebreathing exhaled gas with high carbon dioxide content, Research from the National Library of Medicine announced.
Compared to a standard snorkel, full face snorkel masks have a larger ‘dead space’ – space of unrecycled air – which can lead to a build-up of carbon dioxide, which can cause headaches, dizziness, panic and even unconsciousness.
“The reason they are unsafe makes sense to us; the combination of a full-face mask and snorkel has a much larger volume than a standard snorkel,” said Tony Hoff, an employee at a dive shop in Kailua. Island News.
“You could build up a volume of CO2 in that mask and not get enough oxygen. That’s why we stopped selling full-face mask-snorkel combos a long time ago,” he explained.
The group snorkeled in the unguarded waters at the Ahihi-Kinua Nature Reserve (pictured) in west Maui
“I felt like the mask was suffocating me and I had to pull my mask off to breathe,” said Ilya’s sister-in-law, Taisiya Tsaruk, who was on vacation with the now-deceased couple. Pictured: Ilya’s brother, Tony, and his wife, Taisiya
The couple left their 18-month-old child, now an orphan, with family
Other concerns have also been raised about using full diving gear, including difficulty removing the mask, difficulty getting water out of the mask, mask fogging, and claustrophobia.
The young couple were on holiday to celebrate the birth of their second child when the tragedy occurred.
Sophia was not a good swimmer and reported feeling a little nauseous as they put on snorkel masks and waded into the unguarded water.
The group split up to explore the seabed, until another swimmer approached Tiasiya and told her he had heard screams in the water.
At 12:02 p.m., emergency services were called and a rescuer on a jet ski found Sophia floating unconscious in the water and brought her to shore.
Then the emergency services started looking for Ilya again. He was already out of sight before divers found him on the seabed, more than 100 meters from the beach.
A bystander filmed the rescuers’ desperate attempts to resuscitate the couple as their shocked relatives looked on.
The couple left their 18-month-old child, now an orphan, with relatives.
A GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the child and to bring his parents home has exceeded its $100,000 goal since it was launched on Sunday.
