Bent over a BC

I spent all Sunday night watching my brother who is new to Scuba (10 dives) in a hyperbaric chamber getting unbent. He had a rapid, uncontrolled ascent from 50 feet and reported DCS symptoms the next day. DAN was called and off the the decompression facility we went. Should he have been more careful? Of course. My gripe is the design of the BC he was wearing. He rented a Malibu ( I believe it's a scubapro) model. The inflator button is integrated so smoothly into the hose he couldn't feel it through the gloves he was wearing. When he grabbed the hose to DEFLATE he was inadvertently depressing the inflate button. As he rose he tryed harder and harder to press the deflate. Meanwhile his grip only tightened on the "hose". The result is he popped up to the surface like a cork.

Why do mfg's not employ better ergonomics in design? While the blue, flush inflate button LOOKS cool it feels no different through thick gloves. In contrast my BC has a very distinct inflate button that is easy to distinguish even with thick gloves. Given the potential lethality of any confusion why the dangerous design? If you tell me the BC is for warm blue waters where gloves aren't worn why is the LDS renting them for cold enviorments? Why isn't the mfg stipulating the units purpose so the LDS doesn't rent or sell them for cold water dives?

Comfort and price are important but proper ergonomic design should be a priority. Looks should be at the bottom. Most divers are only occasional recreational types. The equipment should reflect that reality and be safer.

He's OK by the way. I think I've convinced him (and his wife) he needs to purchase his equipment even if he is not diving regularly.

Sounds scary.. a very good reason to buy your own equipment, you know where everything is on them

Dale

If this happened to me I would be inclined to fix the problem on the surface as quickly as possible and then decend to at least half my max bottom depth wait five minutes and then carry out a very slow ascent (air permitting).

It this a good plan? What should you do?

But lack of experience and stupidity (not knowing your limits) are hard to engineer around.

I am not saying it is your brother's fault, but he should have noticed before the dive that he couldn't tell the buttons apart and gone to gloves that gave better dextarity and the shop that rented it should have provided some caution or warning about the buttons or maybe required a check dive in the pool.

I'm glad he is OK.

Sorry for your brother getting bent. Does anyone have a picture of the low pressure inflator in question so I could get a sense of how easy this would be to do?

My BCD is a Seaquest and I can quiet clearly feel the button when I touch or push it. I can hear it inflate also, something you cant hear when you try to deflate.

While I would love to blame the manufacturer, its kinda like someone who pushes the gas peddle instead of the brake peddle and then hits a car.

Resubmerging is the worse thing you can do, that would have made his DCS more severe. The best thing to do is lay on your left side with feet raised (so any air bubble will go to your feet and not your brain) and administer pure oxygen if available. Didn't you learn to never resubmerge in your certification class?????

I certified nearly 30 years ago. Some of the finer points have faded. I'm planning to do some retraining this year.

Marcos once bubbled...
Resubmerging is the worse thing you can do, that would have made his DCS more severe. The best thing to do is lay on your left side with feet raised (so any air bubble will go to your feet and not your brain) and administer pure oxygen if available. Didn't you learn to never resubmerge in your certification class?????

Click to expand...

If there are no symptoms, and it seems there weren't then there is a procedure for a missed stop, and I agree that I would have employed it for this rapid ascent.

Marcos once bubbled...
Resubmerging is the worse thing you can do, that would have made his DCS more severe.

Click to expand...

Why would this have made his DCS more severe?

That question asked, resubmerging is recommended against AFAIK.

Marcos,
You sure about your position in the case of an asymptomatic ascent (i.e. missed stop).

The following is an extract from the US Navy diving manual:

21-3.6.3 In-Water Procedure. When no recompression facility is available, use the following in-water procedure to make up omitted decompression in asymptomatic divers for ascents from depths below 20 feet.

Recompress the diver in the water as soon as possible (preferably less than a 5-minute surface interval). Keep the diver at rest, provide a standby diver, and maintain good communication and depth control. Use the decompression schedule appropriate for the divers depth and bottom time.

Follow the procedure below with 1 minute between stops:

1. Return the diver to the depth of the first stop.
2. Follow the schedule for stops 40-fsw and deeper.
3. Multiply the 30-, 20-, and 10-fsw stops by 1.5.

I know this is not directly applicable to recreational diving but I am inclined to stick to my original plan.