River Tran Direct Exam

·         Please state your name and occupation for the court.

o   My name is Dr. River Tran.  I am a physician and a pathologist specializing in internal medicine. 

·         What credentials do you have related to the field of internal medicine?

o   I graduated with honors from Duke University with a degree in Biology and then from Loyola Chicago Medical School.  I am certified in pathology an internal medicine.  In addition, I am a member of the American Society of Pathologists, the Forensic Scientists of Association of America and the Water Sport Experts Association. 

·          You mentioned you were a member of the Water Sports Experts Association.  Why is that?

o   In my over 17 years of experiences as a pathologist, physician, and private consultant, I have seen over 400 cases of water sports related injuries.  These include injuries from various water activities but nearly half of them resulted from scuba diving.  I have published academic articles on most of these topics, including scuba diving and injuries from scuba diving.   I have also taken six seminars related to water sports medicine.       

·         Have you ever served as an expert in a legal proceeding?

o   I have served as an expert in over 53 previous cases and I have testified as an expert 8 times.  I usually testify for the plaintiff, but I am open to testifying for either side.   

·         How do you know the Allens?

o   Andy Allen has hired me as a consultant in order to ascertain the cause of his wife’s, Lee Allen, death. 

·         How did you go about investigating Lee Allen’s death?

o   First I reviewed several documents pertaining to this case.  These included the witness statements of Andy Allen, Reggie Rogers, and Hayden Hathaway.  I also reviewed Lee Allen’s medical records and tested Reggie Rogers’ respiratory rate over the course of five dives with the consent of Neptune Underwater Expeditions.  I found his respiratory rate to be about 12 L/min under normal circumstances.    

·         What did you do next?

o   After reviewing these materials, I applied the prevailing applicable standards of medicine and injury prevention.  All of my conclusions rest on years of experience and research which has been validated by several scientists, including myself.  I also based my conclusions on the information contained in Scuba Diving 101, which contains and describes many industry standards regarding scuba diving. 

·         What did you conclude, if anything, regarding Lee Allen’s suitability to dive on July 7, 2011?

o   Based on all the materials I just mentioned, Lee Allen should not have been allowed to dive that day as she had stage 2 hypertension otherwise known as high blood pressure?   High blood pressure can significantly raise the risk of suffering from nitrogen narcosis during a dive.   

·         What efforts, if any did Neptune make to discover this information?

o   According to the records, Neptune never inquired about this specific condition.  In my expert opinion, Neptune’s failure to ask Lee Allen about this condition, and failure to require a physical examination prior to the dive, meant that Neptune had no idea whether or not Lee could dive on July 7.  It’s a big gamble. 

·         What happened to Lee Allen during the July 7 dive?

o   Again, based on reviewing all of the relevant materials, specifically the statement of Reggie Rogers, Lee Allen was suffering from nitrogen narcosis during the first 10 minutes of the Neptune dive.

·         During a dive, how should one treat nitrogen narcosis?

o   The only solution is to surface immediately.  Even after Lee Allen exhibited signs of nitrogen narcosis, Reggie Rogers did not think that Lee should surface, and instead, the dive continued. 

·         What other conclusions, if any, did you reach regarding the Hepburn dive?

o   In his statement, Reggie Rogers concluded that she did not have enough oxygen to surface with Lee Allen during the July 7 dive.  I find this to be incorrect. 

·         How so?

o   Neptune supplied all of its divers with approximately 7200 liter bars of air for the July 7 dive.  This should have left Reggie Rogers with plenty of Oxygen to complete the dive. 

·         Do you recognize this chart?

o   Yes, this is the chart from my report which details the timeline of the dive and the air consumed at each stage. 

·         Please explain what this chart shows us about the dive on July 7. 

o   Based on my calculations of the dive timeline and the Reggie Rogers’ respiratory rate, Rogers should have only needed about 6,500 liter bars of air.  Furthermore, I even accounted for a RMV of 50 L/M per minute even though this is significantly more than Rogers would have consumed in the most stressful of circumstances.  As is stated earlier his normal rage is only 12 L/m. 

·         Based on this information, did Reggie Rogers have enough air to make additional attempts to save Lee?

o   Even accounting for the additional stresses of the dive, Reggie Rogers had nearly 700 liter bars of air left over.  He had more than enough air to make another rescue effort.    

·         Does this chart contradict any information in Reggie Rogers’ witness statement?

o   In his/her statement, R.R. claims that s/he only had 900 bars to surface when he abandoned Lee Allen, as the chart shows, the ascent requires 1,813 bars to surface.  Not even a diver with extensive experience, like Rogers, could surface at such a rate.  If Rogers only had 900 bars left, s/he could not have surfaced at all.     

·         According to R.R. statement, how much surplus air did R.R. have when s/he surfaced?

o   R.R. had at least 300 bars remaining when s/he returned to the surface.

·         What does this surplus mean?

o   Given that R.R. had plenty of air to surface, this means that R.R. was wrong to abandon Lee Allen.  R.R. had more than enough air to safely surface with Lee but instead, abandoned him/her. 

·         Moving on, was Lee Allen provided with enough air to complete the dive on July 7?

o   From the moment he entered the water, Lee Allen did not have enough air.  An average diver with moderate experience, like Lee Allen would require 7,300 bars of air for a dive to 170 feet.

·         How much air did Neptune supply?

o    Neptune only supplied 7,200 bars.  Neptune’s decision to provide Lee Allen with only 7,200 bars of air was clearly insufficient for the dive on July 7.    

·         What was Lee Allen’s most likely cause of death?

o   Given that Lee Allen did not have enough air for the dive and was permitted to dive despite Neptune being aware of his struggles, Lee most likely died from cerebral hypoxia which is a lack of oxygen to the brain.           

Food for Thought

·         Review all the material Tran uses to make conclusions.  You may be asked about it by the judge.  I will have copies but you should know where certain statements are. 

·         Cross

o   Be COMBATIVE, you know you were right and they are clearly wrong.  Act like it is completely irrational for them to question you.

o   On testifying for the plaintiff only, that is how your company chooses to do business, if you were ever asked to testify for the defense you would

o   On fear of water, you have seen the dangers of certain activities and so you are not scared but aware. 

o   Be sure to check the group.  Look at Tran’s Cross to see the type of questions you will be asked.