Photo: Supplied/ Greater Wellington Regional Council
A Lower Hutt man who died of a heart attack during a Waitangi Day diving trip was on a waiting list to see a specialist.
Gideon Marama Te Ahuru, a 60-year-old builder and much-loved community figure, died on 6 February this year after pulling in two sacks of kina.
In her findings released on Thursday, Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave concluded that Te Ahuru's death - which was due to his underlying heart disease and extreme physical exertion - was "preventable".
He had been diving off a boat with his brother-in-law, Solomona Priest, at Barrett's Reef, near Eastbourne.
He sent a bag of kina to the surface after 20 minutes, followed by a second bag 10 minutes later but then surfaced coughing bloody phlegm.
Priest pulled him onto the boat, removed his diving gear and sped back to shore.
At the beach, he started doing CPR on Te Ahuru on the floor of the boat.
Two nearby medical professionals received alerts and arrived to take over CPR until emergency services arrived, but he could not be revived.
A post-mortem found his death was due to hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease contributed to by physical exertion.
The police dive squad found his dive cylinder was faulty and emptied faster than expected.
Together with the weight of the kina, that would have made it hard to breathe and put stress on his body.
Te Ahuru had been taking medication for high blood pressure and angina.
At his last consultation in December 2024, Te Ahuru had "excellent" blood pressure but complained of breathlessness when exercising.
He was prescribed aspirin and a beta blocker and referred to a cardiology specialist. "Unfortunately, Mr Te Ahuru died before he could be seen by that specialist."
As a result of his health challenges, Te Ahuru had been eating healthily and rarely drank alcohol.
He also gave his time to Tane Ora, a community initiative to support Māori men's health.
A builder by trade, he worked as property manager at the kura where his wife, Kararaina Luke, was the principal, and was deeply involved in sport, including softball.
"He loved sport, and was a well-loved, tolerant and gentle man," the coroner said.
"Mr Te Ahuru was a certified and experienced diver, having dived for at least 30 years according to Ms Luke, although he hadn't been diving for about a year.
"Mr Te Ahuru was also a qualified Boat Master and had worked as an honorary fisheries officer. Ms Luke told Police that Mr Te Ahuru was meticulous about safety, weather conditions and his equipment."
The coroner has made a number of recommendations, including:
- Recreational divers should ensure they are medically fit to dive and should seek dive medical advice when there are any changes in their health, when they use or change medications, when they turn 45 years of age and at least every five years after.
- Diving equipment should be regularly serviced and must not be used if suspected to be faulty.
- Divers should always monitor air supply and end a dive when there is 50 bar remaining.
"I am satisfied that Mr Te Ahuru's death was preventable," the coroner wrote.
"As noted by the Police Dive Squad in its report, the contributory factors of Mr Te Ahuru's hypertension and angina and the medications for such (contraindicative to diving), the out of date dive cylinder, the faulty second stage regulator, and the heavy sacks of kina causing increased effort by Mr Te Ahuru, have all combined on 6 February 2025 to create the situation which led to Mr Te Ahuru's death."
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