Memory of Events During a Crisis Dive

[Leejnd]

Any "critical incident" usually leads to a loss of memory that usually returns after a period of time.

Hmmm...not sure if I agree. In the few instances in which I've experienced a crisis of some sort, I don't believe I lost any memories of what transpired. If anything, my memories were even sharper than normal. I have this annoying habit of needing to TALK about critical incidents that happen to me...and I don't recall having any lack of memory of all the details, even from right after it happened.

I'm sure that happens...just not sure it happens to everyone.

 

[Valwood1]

144 feet + heavy breathing => CO2 narc

narcosis will definitely cause amnesia, add in the stress, and i'd say it was unsurprising for you to have memory issues in thinking back about this event.

Thanks for the answer. That diagnosis sounds very likely, and it's good to put a name/explanation on the condition.

 

[Walter]

Valwood1, I'm sure narcosis was a major factor in your loss of memory, but it also sounds like panic contributed to the memory loss. Panicked people often do not later remember clearly what took place while they were panicked.

 

[Valwood1]

Valwood1, I'm sure narcosis was a major factor in your loss of memory, but it also sounds like panic contributed to the memory loss. Panicked people often do not later remember clearly what took place while they were panicked.

My ego much prefers Lamont's explanation, but logic tells me that panic certainly could have existed. If panic was present, it was not disabling -- I don't recall any feeling of not knowing what to do, or of "freezing up".

Question: If a diver is "panicked", does the diver automatically fail to do what he/she has been trained to do, or otherwise make poor decisions (or no decisions)? In other words, can you be panicked but still function rationally?

 

[Walter]

Panic doesn't necessarily result in freezing up. Panic often results in action. Sometimes it's even the correct action such as swimming rapidly away from the wall to get out of a down current. Other times it will be the incorrect action like skipping a safety stop after a dive to 144 ft, or fully inflating a BC at depth (possibly even over inflating and blowing out most of your air through the over pressure relief valve), or kicking like hell for the surface. It is always the result of being "scared -- really scared."

If you are behaving rationally, you are not panicked. You may be very close to panic, but if you are thinking and making conscious decisions, you are not panicked. I don't know if you were or were not panicked, but the description you have given us makes me think that you probably were. I've dealt with lots of panicked divers.

None of us like to think we can panic, but the plain facts are any of us can panic.

 

[Leejnd]

Question: If a diver is "panicked", does the diver automatically fail to do what he/she has been trained to do, or otherwise make poor decisions (or no decisions)? In other words, can you be panicked but still function rationally?

Here's an interesting article on panic: Panic! How it Works and What To Do About It

According to this (and other) articles about panic, a key component of panic is, plainly speaking, the inability to think or behave rationally. That doesn't mean that you won't do the right thing - you might - but your thought process is indisputably impaired.

The linked article has a couple of annoying passages (it brings up scuba diving a few times, and the author claims to be a diver, yet he describes "buddy breathing" as the normal course of action when a diver is OOA, rather than using an octo or other alternate air source). But it has some good information in there about how panic works, and how you can actually desensitize yourself to it.

 

[piikki]

2. There's a lot of merit in not draining a tank during the "normal" part of a dive, because you just never know when you'll need that air to escape from a bad spot. That's pretty basic, but I point this out because I've met a lot of divers who think that coming up with anything more than 500PSI is a waste of dive time. Obviously, the amount of reserve "needed" depends on the dive location.

I cannot believe how often I hear people proudly announcing how they dived for all the money’s worth and surfaced with 200 or 300 PSI in their Al80. Yes it might just be a local lake charter but there are half a dozen things I can think of going wrong.

Leaving aside non-immediate gear issues (my first stage loosens at 200 PSI, I don’t know about yours) but why not care for your buddy at least. If you do not think you ever need to quickly descent to take a few breaths because of BC failure or because of boat propeller etc, think what if your buddy sank right at the end. Would you not want to have a few extra breaths to be able to re-descent and check if s/he was drowning? What about that little extra to stay afloat to help someone rather than having to yell that you can’t inflate anymore and now can’t get a breath to do it orally either because buddy, as low on air as you, is grabbing onto you too. 500 PSI at least gives some options but 200 PSI might in some SPG:s case actually be ~50 PSI which is same as zero.

The best I heard was someone proudly announcing that they surfaced with 50 PSI. My comment: “So you ran out of air?” Blank face.

 

[cloudflint]

I think alot of these incidents illustrate the need for divers to stay close to each other. If something happens to your buddy it can only take a few seconds for them to start sinking or rising to fast for you to grab them. Ive had a few incidents where peoples bc's have jammed on, they've fallen unconscious on a wall, started to sink when on the surface e.t.c. but because we stay within arms reach of each other ive always been able to grab them immediately and help them out, turning a potentially lethal situation into a minor annoyance.

I also think its important for people to realise that the point where someone is going to have problems is most often going to be on descent, ascent or on the surface. Assume your buddy is going to fall unconscious and have a total systems failure and you will be pleasantly surprised if they don't and prepared if they do

 

[Leejnd]

I think alot of these incidents illustrate the need for divers to stay close to each other. If something happens to your buddy it can only take a few seconds for them to start sinking or rising to fast for you to grab them. Ive had a few incidents where peoples bc's have jammed on, they've fallen unconscious on a wall, started to sink when on the surface e.t.c. but because we stay within arms reach of each other ive always been able to grab them immediately and help them out, turning a potentially lethal situation into a minor annoyance.

Well...not sure I would EVER call someone falling unconscious underwater a MINOR annoyance!!! :shocked2:

 

[lamont]

My ego much prefers Lamont's explanation, but logic tells me that panic certainly could have existed. If panic was present, it was not disabling -- I don't recall any feeling of not knowing what to do, or of "freezing up".

Question: If a diver is "panicked", does the diver automatically fail to do what he/she has been trained to do, or otherwise make poor decisions (or no decisions)? In other words, can you be panicked but still function rationally?

I did say "add in the stress", so I didn't mean to imply it was only the CO2 narc that was entirely responsible.

I will bet that anyone in the same circumstance would have had similar issues, so your ego can rest easy on that -- either with the stress or the CO2 loading, biologically we're all going to react similarly.

There was probably ways to avoid getting into the situation that you got into in the first place, which is what your ego should probably be focusing on.