Scary OW certification weekend

[Selchie in LB]

Wow that is crazy! What the heck was the instructor thinking letting you back into the water even if only to snorkel!

DCS is serious and it does sound like you had a lung injury.

 

[aquaregia]

I am extremely surprised that you managed to drain a tank with a failure on the HP line.

 

[koozemani]

The last time I saw foamy blood coming from someones mouth, they were dead.

D.A.N. Emergency Hotline 1-919-684-9111

+1. Sounds like a lung injury.

 

[t-mac]

As said, seek medical help. It sounds like your over-exerted yourself chasing the egg, causing you to start over-breathing your regulator. Your description of a boa constrictor is exactly what it feels like. This is a very good lesson in why we need to take it easy diving and avoid exertion. It can induce panic, as you found out, and it can actually cause you to pass out underwater in extreme cases -- not good.

Once you've talked to DAN and/or seen a doctor, please come back and tell us what they said.

Congratulations on the cert!

 

[eelnoraa]

On top of letting your back in after O2 treatment, turning tank valve off and do CESA in OW class doesnt sound right to me either.

Anyway, glad you are OK. But seek professional help for sure

 

[japan-diver]

There are so many things wrong with this post that I am scared to comment. If an instructor let you back in the water after coughing up blood to do anything he should loose his instructor card and worse. You need to get checked out by a doctor ASAP- hopefully someone who knows a bit about diving as it is very possible you suffered a pulmonary embolism - at the time you should have been taken to the hospital upon surfacing. I do not know of any agency that has a skill where the instructor turns your air off and you swim to the surface and I have been teaching scuba for over 17 years full time for a variety of agencies.

 

[jar546]

We went down again to about 30ft and practiced the skill where the instructor turns off your air, and you swim like crazy to the surface, and manually inflate your BC.

I'm still stuck on that part, let alone the lung expansion injury. Who teaches to "swim like crazy to the surface"

This is one reason we don't leave 25' until after all skills are completed for certification

 

[TSandM]

Does anybody else think this story doesn't quite ring true?

To begin with, a HP hose leak can't empty a tank the way the OP describes. HP hose leaks leak very little volume. If the OP had 500 psi when he saw the leak, and came up on someone else's gas, he wouldn't have had an empty tank at the surface. Look at Curt Bowen's numbers on leak rates: Life Ending Seconds • ADVANCED DIVER MAGAZINE • By Curt Bowen An HP orifice leak emptied about .9 cf/min; if the OP was an on Al80 with 500 psi, he had about 12.5 cf in his tank, and therefore had at least 13 or more minutes before the tank would have been empty from the leak.

And as bad as I think dive instruction can be, I simply cannot imagine an instructor being callous enough to ignore a student who a) panicked; b) did an uncontrolled ascent, and c) ended up on the surface coughing up pink foam. This sounds like a case of immersion pulmonary edema, causing dyspnea at depth, but it could conceivably be pulmonary barotrauma. I have seen instructors abort a dive and refuse to allow a student back in the water for a nosebleed. I have a difficult time imagining an instructor allowing a student who had to be placed on oxygen to reenter the water.

Something just doesn't smell right here.

 

[jar546]

Does anybody else think this story doesn't quite ring true?

To begin with, a HP hose leak can't empty a tank the way the OP describes. HP hose leaks leak very little volume. If the OP had 500 psi when he saw the leak, and came up on someone else's gas, he wouldn't have had an empty tank at the surface. Look at Curt Bowen's numbers on leak rates: Life Ending Seconds • ADVANCED DIVER MAGAZINE • By Curt Bowen An HP orifice leak emptied about .9 cf/min; if the OP was an on Al80 with 500 psi, he had about 12.5 cf in his tank, and therefore had at least 13 or more minutes before the tank would have been empty from the leak.

And as bad as I think dive instruction can be, I simply cannot imagine an instructor being callous enough to ignore a student who a) panicked; b) did an uncontrolled ascent, and c) ended up on the surface coughing up pink foam. This sounds like a case of immersion pulmonary edema, causing dyspnea at depth, but it could conceivably be pulmonary barotrauma. I have seen instructors abort a dive and refuse to allow a student back in the water for a nosebleed. I have a difficult time imagining an instructor allowing a student who had to be placed on oxygen to reenter the water.

Something just doesn't smell right here.

My suspicion also

If it were on my forum I would probably do an IP address crosscheck out of curiosity

 

[Capt Scotty]

Too many things wrong with this post on so many levels...........As a instructor would you sign this card? As a customer is this guy really a instructor?