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It may seem strange coming from another operator but its true. Here is the story:
In November of 2008 I was diving alone with my 10 year old son at Delilah 40 ft max. The only other person on the boat was the Aldora capitan (when you own your own dive op you can do that!). My boy was really enjoying swimthroughs and although it scared me to death, I did so but kept a close hand on his tank. About 20 minutes into the dive he indicated he wanted to go through a narrow ascending one, from about 40 feet to 25 feet. I let him go, but raced after him, just to make sure that exiting the swim through he would not bolt to the surface.
On the way up I noticed I was negative and instead of adding air to my BC, as I should have done, in my haste I just sucked in extra air and held it to keep my belly out of the sand. I did get to him at the exit but then he was having problems with mask flooding and seemed worried. No problem, we'd only been to 40 feet for 20 minutes so I took him up. Safety stop? Not for such a weenie dive so I surfaced and had the Aldora boat capitan get him out of the water.
While myself trying to get up the ladder, I made it as far as passing my BC to the capitan, then while hanging onto the ladder found my left hand would not work, not at all. I did get my fins off and by that time I just could not move anything, except I did wrap my right arm around the ladder. I remember my face sloshing in and out of the water, but being able to spit the water out. Eventually the capitan looked over ( probably thought I was peeing), and saw my face in the water. I vaguely remember him uttering some sort of Spanish swear word as he grabbed the back of my wetsuit and kept my head out of the water.
But there we were, a 220 lb guy in the water with no mobility and a 120 pound capitan and 10 year. old boy to try and pull him over. Actually all they could do was keep me from drowning, and yell for help.
What had happened was that my breath hold ascent in the swimthrough from 40 to 25 feet I suffered what is called an Arterial Cerebral Gas Embolism. That is, a small bubble of air passed through my lungs and got into an artery that went straight to my brain. Once at the surface the bubble expanded and caused the exact same symptoms as a stroke.
Well, the first passing boat, I have no idea how long it took, was a Dressel Divers cattle boat. Thank goodness as they had two well trained DMs on board who quickly and professionally got my carcass over the gunnel and applied the oxygen we had on board the Aldora 4.
It was almost surreal but for most of this event I was conscious of what was going on and I marveled at the professionalism of these two guys. One was an Israeli and the other a German and even if they did not know Palancar from Paradise, they were very professional in their life saving skills.
Indeed, after about 5 minutes on O2 I came out of the paralysis and could talk. I offered them both a job on the spot as I can teach reefs real quick... but not so well at life saving skills. They both declined and then went on to take their afternoon load of divers out.
Of course I went on to a great number of chamber rides, and had to stay out of the water for a year, but don't expect me to ever bad mouth Dressel Divers.
Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers
PS I learned a number of valuable lessons in this stupidity of mine, if anyone wants me to elaborate I will.
That's a really good point Dave about doing ascending diving in swim throughs, people forget that they are ascending. There are many swim throughs we go through at Coz, many divers probably come close to a ride.
I also appreciate your remark at the end of your story, on not making badmouth shots. Good on ya dude.
In judging others a man labours to no purpose, commonly errs, and easily sins, but in examining himself, he is always wisely and usefully employed. Thomas A Kempis
[countdown=06/12/2011 12:30 AM]Count down:[/countdown]until Kev's on Coz
[countdown=2/12/2011 12:45 AM]Count down:[/countdown]until Kev hits Coz again
Dave, the world would be a darker place without men like you in it. I've met a lot of people on the island of Cozumel and have a real liking for nearly all of them, but you and a certain spear fisherman we both know stand on a different level. Proof of that here is your 163 posts, with 151 thanks. You are just that kind of guy.
It's a small island, and I heard somewhere along the way that you were subjected to a series of chamber rides after a dive. I nearly asked you about it, but left it alone to respect your privacy. I'm glad that Dressel came along to help out that day and that you are still with us....Cozumel wouldn't be the same without you. When someone as experienced as you are makes a mistake that nearly costs him very dearly, it is a lesson that all of us can learn from. I've been guilty of stretching the limits of safety in exactly that way...and I'll think better of it next time. Thanks Dave.
Why now? It is because there are many good, well trained Dive Masters/Instructors in Cozumel who can lead you on a safe, wonderful dive. And save your life if need be!
But frankly, I am a little ashamed of how stupid I was to be out by myself with no help other than my 10 year old son. Can you imagine how traumatic that was for him, thinking his dad was dead and yelling for other boasts to stop-...and why we at Aldora Divers always require that one of our DMs stay with the group. Didn't even follow my own rules,! But if the story goes on I'l tell you more stupid things I did in this event!
So to answer the prime question, I post for two reasons: one is TO COUNTER the recent slamming of Dressel Divers who saved my life, and the other is let others know how important it is is stay with someone (THE DM) who can reaLLY HELP YOU when bad things happen. They will if you dive long enough!
Ok, the rest of the story is maybe not so interesting but it does have some good lessons for all of us.
As I was being revived and on my way to the dock at Nachi CoCom, with the two Dressel DMs working me over, they had their boat (I don't remember its name) call for the Ambulance. Once at the dock they kept me on the floor of the boat and I would stay that way until the ambulance arrived--but it never did!
It seems that their boat radioed for the ambulance to come to their base at the Iberostar, not Nachi CoCom where we waited until the oxygen ran out. Gratefully, by that time. Memo, my partner in Aldora, had arrived in his car and he just rushed me back to town and the chamber of my friend Dr. Piccolo. I was able to kiss my wife and reassure her before sliding into the chamber with his attendant.
Once in, and before starting the process I was asked if I wanted to see any movies which they project into the chamber. Given it was going to be 4 hours or more I picked two. War of the Worlds of which I knew, and another Men of Honor which I presumed was a Marine war movie or something like that.
Now I had gone for a chamber ride many years back as support for a friend that had a skin bend, so I knew what to expect from that, but the movie Men of Honor was just too much. It was all about DEAD NAVY DIVERS and I had just came close to doing the same thing! Indeed, I fully realized that if I had not the sense and remaining control to wrap my right arm around the ladder, I surely would have slipped under and been gone, just like that. Needless to say I had them change the movie and put on a more uplifting War of the Worlds!
Subsequent to that day I had at least 4 more chamber rides and of course was banned from diving for a year. The good news is that I have no lingering symptoms and there is little likelihood that a repeat will happen as long as I don't do another stupid breath hold.
Now, then other lessons:
1. If you get involved in such a situation, don't trust others to tell the ambulance where to go. Make damn sure that THE BOAT YOU ARE ON is the one to call the emergency people.
2. On Aldora IV we had a standard DAN Rescue Pack with O2. It is not enough! Indeed if I had needed more O2 to survive I wouldn't be writing this. As a result we have purchased BIG OXYGEN TANKS and while not having one on every boat all the time, we make sure that at least one of our operating boats does have one to provide back up in an emergency. On smaller boats where storage is a problem it would be a good idea to have at least a second bottle.
3. On getting your chamber ride, be a little more selective in your movie selection!
Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers
PS If you didn't get it from the first part of the story:
Don't ever hold your breath while ascending, even short distances.
Always have someone with you capable of saving your life. A DM is the best bet.
I think this is a danger of swimthroughs and even sanitized wrecks, that people don't think about very much. On the Red Sea trip I made last October, we ended up with a diver with subcutaneous emphysema (air in the soft tissue under the skin) which is caused by lung expansion injury. It was lucky that he didn't have an air embolism or collapsed lung, but only the subQ air.
The way we finally put the sequence together, we strongly suspect that, while he was doing a brief penetration of a wreck which was lying in an extremely unusual attitude, he didn't realize he was ascending and held his breath.
This can happen even to very experienced divers.
Glad your story had a happy ending, Dave. You were very nice to me when I was setting up our Cozumel trip several years ago, and Aldora treated us extremely well. I would have been very unhappy to have read that you were permanently disabled.
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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. - H. L. Mencken
Originally Posted by Dave Dillehay
