According to police, the initial examinations of four of the seven victims who perished when a superyacht sank in a storm in Italy last month were the result of ‘dry drowning’, Cape {town} Etc reports.
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According to CNN, the syndrome, often called ‘atypical drowning,’ implies there was no water in their lungs, tracheas, or stomachs, according to a representative for the captain’s counsel.
The Bayesian went down off the coast of the Sicilian port of Porticello on August 19.
There is no medically approved ‘dry drowning’ condition; ‘dry drowning’ or other phrases such as secondary drowning or delayed drowning are occasionally used to describe individuals whose condition worsened after a drowning rescue or who had very little water in their lungs.
However, the American Red Cross and other health organisations have advised against using the terminology; people may experience health effects after being in water, but this is not the same as drowning, they argue.
According to local media sources, the first four victims died after discovering an air bubble in the cabin and consuming all of the oxygen before it became deadly due to carbon dioxide. The cabin contained the bodies of five of the victims.
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The autopsies of American lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda Morvillo, Morgan Stanley banker Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Anne Elizabeth Judith Bloomer were performed on Wednesday at the Forensic Medicine Institute of the Palermo Polyclinic hospital, according to officials.
On Friday, autopsies are scheduled for British software titan Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter.
The autopsy of Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s onboard chef, has yet to be scheduled due to the difficulty in reaching his family in Antigua.
Last Saturday, all seven victims were scanned for injuries, and it was discovered that none had broken bones or other physical traumas that could have caused their deaths.
The prosecutor in charge of the investigation first suggested in August that the victims had been looking for an air pocket.
The autopsies are part of a criminal inquiry into the ship’s captain, James Cutfield, its machine engineer, Tim Parker Eaton, and sailor Matthew Griffith, who was on duty the night of the tragedy. Neither of the males is in Italy.
They are being probed for ‘multiple manslaughter’ and causing a shipwreck, but investigators claim they will not face any charges.
The prosecutor in charge of the investigation granted them permission to depart the country. The 56-metre yacht sank within 16 minutes of being hit by a downburst or tornado early on August 19.
The ship will have to be raised for the investigation and to guarantee that the 18 000 litres of petroleum on board does not spill into the water near Palermo’s Porticello port.
The salvage has been bid on, and it will be paid for by Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares’ company, which owns the boat.
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The toxicology results for the seven victims are expected in the following days. No alcohol or drug tests were performed on any of the crew members, the prosecutor stated in a press conference after all of the victims’ bodies had been discovered.
Lynch and his business partner Stephen Chamberlain, who died after being hit by a car on the day the Bayesian sank, were cleared of fraud charges in a US court in June 2024.
The charges stemmed from the sale of their company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard, which has stated that it will not abandon its civil lawsuit seeking US$4 billion in damages, which is currently being heard in a UK court.
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Update: Fifth body recovered from yacht wreck, confirmed death toll now six