Burned by chemical heat pack on deco - Scotland

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The explosion badly burnt part of Mr Anderson's back, causing intense pain while he was 160ft below the water's surface.
But aware that if he ascended in a panic he could suffer potentially fatal decompression sickness, Mr Anderson enduring an agonising 20minute ascent following correct procedures.

Hey... diving with those things isn't the best idea, but you got to admit that he showed a great deal of resilience spending 20min with that thing burning him and surfacing on a proper ascent. That must have been so painful. Hats off to him for suffering through this.
 
Hey... diving with those things isn't the best idea, but you got to admit that he showed a great deal of resilience spending 20min with that thing burning him and surfacing on a proper ascent. That must have been so painful. Hats off to him for suffering through this.

Sorry, but my immediate thought was why he didn't flood the suit to stop the burning.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.
 
Idiotic, plain & simple. There are electric suit heaters that are specifically designed for diving. Using a chemical pack is stupid. Being unaware of the reaction with suit gas is stupid. And if he had been aware, he should have used a separate inflation gas than his enriched deco mix.

Suit gas? O2 & methane? ;-)
 
Hey... diving with those things isn't the best idea, but you got to admit that he showed a great deal of resilience spending 20min with that thing burning him and surfacing on a proper ascent. That must have been so painful. Hats off to him for suffering through this.

If he had tipped his neck seal to exhaust the EAN, flush the undergarment with water and extinguish the combusting pad, then I would tip my hat.

For enduring 20mn of agony without taking action, he gets only an uncomfortable grin. Sorry.
 
Sorry, but my immediate thought was why he didn't flood the suit to stop the burning.

That isn't necessarily as straightforward as some seem to think.

The guy dived in Scotland. I guess the temperatures they have there are quite comparable to what we have here on the other side of the North Sea. When I suit up, I don my undergarments, I don my suit, I tuck my neck seal, I don my 7-10mm thick hood, stuff the hood skirt into my suit's warmneck, close the velcro fasteners on the warmnech and don my gloves. I don the gloves last, because I'm not dexterous enough to to the former with gloves on. Now, the gloves may be drygloves, or they may be thick 3-finger wetgloves. Neither are something you don - or doff - quickly and easily. And you don't flood a suit particularly quickly through a wrist seal. I've dived with very leaky drygloves, and I've never been wet above my shoulder.

So to flood my suit, I'd have to pull off at least one, preferably both, of my gloves - and if I'm wearing long cuff wetgloves, I'd probably need some help from my buddy to do that, undo my warmneck and doff my hood (or at least lift my hood's skirt high enough to reach my neck seal, which isn't that easy with a thick, snug hood) before I would be able to pull my neck seal to flood the suit. I'll guess that it would be a lot quicker and easier to pull out my knife and just puncture it.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but IMO there's a decent chance that the guy was stressed enough to either not think about it or not having the mental bandwidth required to do it while he was in intense pain.
 
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