Personal involvement in a scuba diving related emergency?

[Trailboss123]

1. Had a buddy in an uncontrollable quick ascent from 60 feet due to dry suit inflator stuck open and she couldn't get the hose disconnected quick enough. Fortunately, it was on descent and on the first dive of the day and she ended up OK. Scary though.

2. Not an emergency, but scary, I had someone giant stride off of a boat while I was already below waiting at 30 feet and looking up. They got to about 15 feet above me when suddenly their integrated weight pouch with 12 lbs of lead in it (cold water/drysuit) dislodged and came whizzing past my head and missed my skull by about 3 inches. That could have been fatal given how fast it was coming. I still think about it.

3. I had a middle ear barotrauma. Super early in my diving (12 dives) and still getting buoyancy dialed in. Cold water, dry suit, horrible viz in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Ascended too quickly at the end of a dive. Hearing loss and equilibrium issues lasted for 3 weeks and then resolved. I was very lucky and back in the water diving after 2 months.

4. Underweighted diver in Cozumel was in my group. We started to ascend to our safety stop at the end of a dive and she was just rocketing up. Between my buddy, me and the DM, we were able to grab her and get her controlled for the entirety of the safety stop.

5. Also had another diver in my group in Cozumel (different group, different year, different everything) have a weight pouch come dislodged at 85 feet. She was in the midst of an uncontrolled ascent when I grabbed her and got everything sorted.

Properly weighted is always the ideal. Overweighted divers seem to be an unfortunate norm and is dangerous. But, working as a DM, not to mention 4 of the 5 scenarios mentioned here, have taught me that as much as I personally prefer to be properly weighted and I always am when diving solo and have no other concerns or responsibilities; when I dive with others, I prefer to be a "bit" overweighted to be able to help and save in these potential scenarios.

 

[Bigbella]

I was in Queensland, in the late 1990s, when a tourist, in his mid-sixties, had to be medevacked from a boat, with suspected DCS and pneumothorax; and the helicopter rescue went none too smoothly. The gurney bumped and partially spun into the boat a good three times, before the patient was finally airlifted. As far as I know, things finally went well for the guy, back in Townsville.

I experienced an instance of dental barotrauma, back in 2008. Apparently, I had on older, loose amalgam filling and air managed to get introduced within that late, lamented molar. There was some spectacular pain, which caused one eye to reflexively well up; some odd cold sensation through the sinuses, upon ascent from 20-30 meters, as the air expanded, and a crack as though from knuckles. Lost half a tooth, split as though with an anvil; purged my regulator; and watched the fragment spin off and descend into the Monterey Canyon, along with a small cloud of blood.

My dentist, a novice diver at that time, upon learning that DAN was doing some survey on barotrauma, was thrilled when he was asked by the organization, to participate.

Within that same year, I also had a perforated eardrum, which occurred at the surface, of all places, after being slapped, upside the head, by a sudden wave. I didn't realize anything was wrong -- no vertigo or discomfort -- aside from the sensation of water in the ear. When quarter-sized drops of blood, dropped on the HWY-1 asphalt, as I was clearing my ear with a finger, I was off to Doc in the Box. Yea, DAN, yet again.

Back in the 1990s, I managed to get thrown into a sizable bed of red and purple urchins, off the Sonoma Coast, when conditions swiftly changed, within the course of an hour; had spines penetrate my 7 mm suit, and many broke below my skin. The wetsuit was effectively nailed to my back; and I managed to get a monstrous staph infection within a few days and spent the better part of a week at hospital, on antibiotics and a morphine drip. I also had to convince the doctor that I wasn't a junkie, since what I had, appeared to be an "adventitious" infection, typical of skells and addicts, and I had been seriously delirious by that time, with a fever of about 103˚ -- though he later apologized and produced dozens of spine fragments, in one of those stainless, kidney-shaped dishes, which had been removed from my back, thigh and arse.

Still have the scars from 1992 and the occasional tinnitus . . .

 

[shoredivr]

A buddy had a freeflow in 39F water, another diver on a dive boat had a freeflow in 42F with just serviced regs, and another person on a dive boat had a freeflow in 43F water at 120Ft. All ended ok.

This is over 20+ years of diving.

 

[chillyinCanada]

2 plus other: not really “emergency” but facial fractures from impact with tank valve

 

[chillyinCanada]

Skin bends x 2, so painful, hope to never have a 3rd episode
Entanglement night dive, fishing line on my first stage caught me tight and kept me stuck in the mud on the bottom. My buddy just watched me, not realizing. He thought he was being supportive, believing me to be having buoyancy issue. We were quite new divers at the time. A dm trainee, who'd lost his group happened by, lucky for me. He identified my problem and cut me loose. I didn't know what had occurred until back on shore.

Not really emergencies, but perhaps that's because I helped divers that have lost weights at depth.

 

[Marie13]

I wasn't the DM but was doing an instructor internship. A husband went OOA at the safety stop, his wife was right there and I'd say it was the cleanest smoothest octo pass off I've ever seen - come to find out, it'd happened before.

I forgot about this one, young like 12 year old girl bolted for the surface just as soon as we got to the safety stop, very freaked out - she had to pee.

Did anyone ask the young gal why she didn’t just pee in the water? That is a strange one!

 

[Edward3c]

Just happy you didn't include dead diver(s) as a choice. I checked all but 2 of them.

Didn’t include as it wasn’t a rescuer. Back in 2005 I came across the body of a diver missing for 14 years.

 

[chillyinCanada]

1. Had a buddy in an uncontrollable quick ascent from 60 feet due to dry suit inflator stuck open and she couldn't get the hose disconnected quick enough. Fortunately, it was on descent and on the first dive of the day and she ended up OK. Scary though.

2. Not an emergency, but scary, I had someone giant stride off of a boat while I was already below waiting at 30 feet and looking up. They got to about 15 feet above me when suddenly their integrated weight pouch with 12 lbs of lead in it (cold water/drysuit) dislodged and came whizzing past my head and missed my skull by about 3 inches. That could have been fatal given how fast it was coming. I still think about it.

3. I had a middle ear barotrauma. Super early in my diving (12 dives) and still getting buoyancy dialed in. Cold water, dry suit, horrible viz in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Ascended too quickly at the end of a dive. Hearing loss and equilibrium issues lasted for 3 weeks and then resolved. I was very lucky and back in the water diving after 2 months.

4. Underweighted diver in Cozumel was in my group. We started to ascend to our safety stop at the end of a dive and she was just rocketing up. Between my buddy, me and the DM, we were able to grab her and get her controlled for the entirety of the safety stop.

5. Also had another diver in my group in Cozumel (different group, different year, different everything) have a weight pouch come dislodged at 85 feet. She was in the midst of an uncontrolled ascent when I grabbed her and got everything sorted.

Properly weighted is always the ideal. Overweighted divers seem to be an unfortunate norm and is dangerous. But, working as a DM, not to mention 4 of the 5 scenarios mentioned here, have taught me that as much as I personally prefer to be properly weighted and I always am when diving solo and have no other concerns or responsibilities; when I dive with others, I prefer to be a "bit" overweighted to be able to help and save in these potential scenarios.

I was thinking of adding the time the weight belt missed my head by about 3inches but figured, nah . . .but like you said, all these years later and I still think of it.

Oh, yeah! I was looking at a spearingmantis shrimp in his hole and looked away for a second to signal my buddy, the photographer. Zot! Missed me by a hair. I not only still think of it, I still have nightmares. Shiver

Thumped on the forehead by the wing tip of a manta, oh and then more recently had a manta lay on me. Not dangerous, at least I don't think it was but that was a seriously weird sensation.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Didn’t include as it wasn’t a rescuer. Back in 2005 I came across the body of a diver missing for 14 years.

now there's some nightmare making stuff

 

[Searcaigh]

OOG situations less than 10, but I'd need to check my log books for the exact number. The first one was an instructor in Thailand back in the 90s that was allocated to me as a buddy because I was taking photographs, dived solo on the remainder of that particular trip.

All other OOG have not been buddies!

Buddy stung by lion fish inside a wreck on shore dive south of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia back in the 90s. On surfacing he looked green and was vomiting, we had a two kilometre walk back from the reef to shore, by the time we reached the shore he felt fine.

Perforated both ears on several occasions, some resulting in gross ear infections, never had vertigo though as the pressure has always been positive from inside and occurred whilst clearing my ears.

Assisted with a DCS diver on three occasions. One was during a 70m tech dive when one of the group had issues with shoulder joint after boarding. Put on O2 for a couple of hours prior driving to a chamber whilst on O2, which was also a two hour drive and over a mountain.

Second DCS (suspected) was a recreational diver with severe pain in lower back after boarding. O2 on the boat barely lasted five minutes when it was empty. Donated my pony with 50% as that was the next richest gas on the boat for the journey back to the marina. Ambulance took over on arrival at the marina.

Third DCS (suspected) was a recreational diver, feeling severely unwell on surfacing and vomiting. No O2 on the boat and we were two hours away from the port. An instructor on the boat put her on 32% as this was the richest gas we had (prior to me always carrying a pony with 50%) and we returned to port after only one dive on a two tank trip. Taken to local hospital in North Oman on arrival back at the port.

Rescued an entangled diver on a night dive (not my buddy), when everyone had returned from a shore dive (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia back in the 90s). Diver on the surface but first stage had become entangled on a piece of rope from a mooring line about ten meters from the entry / exit steps to the jetty. He was in a major panic and had been shouting but no-one had heard him including his buddy! Actually all that was required was for him to de-kit and he would have been free, but had been trying to swim towing a 55Gal drum with 10m of chain connected to large concrete blocks. He was a work colleague at the time, and we all had a good laugh about it afterwards. He had surfaced with his buddy, but she had swam to the jetty before him with other divers and had not noticed he was not in the group.