THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411020425
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
It was a deep-water ocean dive for experts. No greenhorns allowed to explore a shipwreck 180 feet down and about 50 miles offshore.
But years of experience as a diver and training in the Army Special Forces made little difference to Alexandria resident Jeff Morissey, who failed to make it back to the surface early Saturday afternoon.
Morissey, a 34-year-old Pentagon employee, had just completed a rigorous scuba course to become a diving instructor. He apparently suffered a stroke or heart attack within 10 feet of the surface...
Morissey and a party of about 16 fellow scuba enthusiasts were diving from the 60-foot Miss Lindsey, a Virginia Beach-based vessel owned by Dive Lindsey Inc.
According to Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Richard Grimm, Morissey died when ``decompression induced either a heart attack or a stroke.''
Morissey and his dive party of five were returning to the surface after the second dive of the day - the wreck of the Ethel C. According to others in the dive party, Morissey seemed healthy up to the point that he suffered the heart attack or stroke.
Morissey was 10 feet from the surface when his body went limp and his respirator popped out of his mouth. At least two of his fellow divers struggled unsuccessfully to pull Morissey to the surface.
His body caught in a strong underwater current, then was pulled toward the bottom, Grimm said. It was not recovered.
Grimm said Morissey's dive partner, 30-year-old Gwenyth Todd, hurried to the surface when she saw that Morissey was in trouble.
Todd was airlifted by the Coast Guard to a shock-trauma unit in Baltimore where she spent time in a decompression chamber.
Todd, a Pentagon employee who lives in Arlington, recovered after treatment, Grimm said.
Morissey's military training, fitness and health may have disguised other problems. Grimm said Morissey apparently had a family history of premature deaths from heart attack. And other divers said Morissey had severe allergies that had caused hospitalization in the past.
Grimm said there would be no search for Morissey's body and that he is listed as missing and presumed dead by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office, Hampton Roads, is investigating, Grimm said.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL FATALITY SCUBA DIVING by CNB