Blacked out freediver saved - Bahamas

[DandyDon]

Freediver has lucky escape after blacking out and sinking

A beginner freediver had a brush with death after he blacked out and quickly sank towards the ocean floor during a spearfishing expedition.

The young man had speared a fish in deep water off the Bahamas and was rapidly ascending to the surface, but blacked out as he reached air.

He ominously began to sink back down as his brother, Alexandro Mullings, a freediving instructor, watched, the New Zealand Herald reported.

In a video posted to Instagram on March 6, the rookie diver can be seen swimming towards the surface in the blue water with a fish hooked on his spear.

But as soon as his head breaks the surface, the young diver falls unconscious and disturbingly sinks back into the deep ocean.

Footage ends with him regaining control on the surface of the water.

Alexandro Mullings said his brother experienced a loss of motor control. This occurs when a diver has taken a full lung of air at the ocean surface after being submerged in deep water and the sudden change in pressure causes the diver to black out and lose motor control.

"Things could have went really badly due to his LMC (loss of motor control), what hurt even more is the feelings of guilt that later ensued after watching the clip, you can clearly see where his body starts to shutdown but I wasn't able to pick up on it," Alexandro Mullings wrote in his Instagram post.

"I knew he'd compromised his dive that's why I started my ascent very rapidly as he left the bottom. To my surprise he shoved me off when I tried to grab his fish, so this made me feel like he was really okay up until I saw his funny body motion and I signaled to him to slow down with his kicks and told him to calm down as he surfaced."

Mullings said his whole attitude to life and diving had changed after episode.

The video was reposted by a spearfishing Instagram account which said the young diver is "lucky to be alive today".

 

[drbill]

Ouch... one reason I gave up free diving a few decades ago. Had a few friends die from blackouts

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

Thanks for another reminder about the importance of an attentive buddy when freediving!

 

[Vicko]

I love how he holds on to the fish even though he knows he is in trouble...

 

[peter seidman]

Ouch... one reason I gave up free diving a few decades ago. Had a few friends die from blackouts

Freediver Recovery Vest. Unobtrusive and effective. It can save a blacked out diver.

 

[Steve_C]

Alexandro Mullings said his brother experienced a loss of motor control. This occurs when a diver has taken a full lung of air at the ocean surface after being submerged in deep water and the sudden change in pressure causes the diver to black out and lose motor control.

Is that right? Because he took a full lung of air? I thought shallow water black out was because at depth the O2 got depleted but the PO2 was still high and then when they reached near the surface the PO2 dropped too low and they passed out.

 

[Vicko]

Is that right? Because he took a full lung of air? I thought shallow water black out was because at depth the O2 got depleted but the PO2 was still high and then when they reached near the surface the PO2 dropped too low and they passed out.

That's the cause of "samba" loss of motor control, doing the full exhale at the surface is what kills most divers. You get rid of the last reserves you might have had, your brain enters panic mode and shuts down. So there you are, passed out with empty lungs, you sink, breath in water and die. Same thing happened to this guy, he had "samba" 5 meters below the surface, but he passed out when he did the full exhale.

 

[dmaziuk]

Is that right? Because he took a full lung of air? I thought shallow water black out was because at depth the O2 got depleted but the PO2 was still high and then when they reached near the surface the PO2 dropped too low and they passed out.

You'd have to second-guess the reporter's understanding translated to what they thought their target audience would understand...