A woman who died following a scuba diving accident in Snodland is likely to have ruptured a lung as she swam to the surface, an inquest heard.

Vikki Shelley had no pulse and was not breathing by the time she was pulled to the shore at Holborough Lakes last July, minutes after indicating she was experiencing breathing difficulties.

At a two-day inquest at Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone this week, a jury concluded her death was accidental.

Dr Ian Calder, an expert on diving deaths, said it was probable the 33-year-old sustained the injury by not breathing out sufficiently as she rose through the water, causing the air in her body to expand.

The rupture meant gas bubbles passed into her blood, causing a severe stroke.

Dr Calder said it was a regular complication in amateur diving and caused irreversible brain damage within minutes.

The author, from Linden Drive in Sheerness, had passed the theory element of a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) course the previous month, and had successfully completed five training dives in a swimming pool.

The tragedy happened less than 15 minutes into her third open water dive.
Instructor Andrew Rudge saw a colleague dragging Miss Shelley out of the water. He said:

“There was another school at the lake running a rescue course including bringing people out of the water, so when there was noise and shouting I thought it was them.

“Then I heard the words: ‘this is not a drill’.

“Unfortunately it was Vikki. Her lips were blue and she was unresponsive at the time.”

Miss Shelley, described as a model student, had been 6m underwater learning to remove and replace her mask. Seconds after completing the task she indicated she needed to go up.

Rescue diver Rod Potts, who escorted Miss Shelley, said the ascent became quicker and more frantic towards the surface but that she was breathing and speaking normally when they surfaced.

She told him she thought she was having an asthma attack and needed her inhaler, but Dr Calder said the condition had not contributed to her death.

Miss Shelley was treated at the scene before being taken to Maidstone Hospital. She was later airlifted to the James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth which provides specialist oxygen therapy, but pronounced dead the following day.

A Health and Safety Executive investigation found that the tragedy had not been caused by problems with the kit or training.

A former pupil of Minster College in Sheppey, Miss Shelley had worked as a television extra and as a writer, using the name Victoria Ley under which she wrote The Darkseed Series.

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