BONAIRE 2016 With Diver Accident Profile

[Thook]

 

[mjsylver]

Beautiful video and I'm so glad everything worked out for your wife.

 

[Frank Daneluk]

Awesome . Thanks for sharing.

 

[diver0008]

13-hour chamber ride. What a nightmare.

 

[Thook]

Thanks MJ... It was a close call....

 

[Diving Dubai]

Again glad everything worked out, and that you had the support. You might wish to open a thread in Lessons Learned (In the AI section) if you haven't' to pass on information to others.

I know that some people put reg changes right up there with mask clear, in things they're not comfortable with (I'm not suggesting your wife is) It's good practice to swap to your alternate and back again on dives. Obviously to get practice and it highlights any faults you may not get at the surface. Better to catch things early.

I once had a wet breathe and swallowed a bit of water which closed my epiglottis (although I didn't realise this at the time) Even changing regs to my pony had no effect (which it wouldn't but that was my reaction) - What did confuse me was looking at 2 different SPG's each reading over 150 bar in each cylinder. I went vertical to head for the surface just finning, and at 30' the spasm cleared allowing me to breath, so I have some sympathy and understanding.

 

[Thook]

Wow Dubai that's crazy. Very good point. My wife is comfortable with all procedures and a very seasoned diver, but when panic sets in that can at times go out the window. Long story short, although serviced at regular intervals, her regulator was 20 years old. Everything has a shelf life. Rest assured we will be changing some protocols that the both of us have just quite simply gotten too relaxed on over the years. The Hospital told us the same circumstances happened two years ago at 60' in Bonaire, and the diver was dead when she hit the surface. I'm counting my blessings that's for sure.

 

[Diving Dubai]

@Thook , We're all fallible, Only last week I almost rolled in without my air on, I'd just done a bounce dive to get the anchor (as we'd missed the site with the anchor dragging) I'd forgotten that I 'd turned off my own air, didn't bother with checks because it was only 10 mins earlier and... What's more annoying I beat it into peopel I mentor to ALWAYS check their SPG and breathe their regs.

When I had my air incident, there was no panic. It was like readign 4 coulms of text on a sheet of paper at once and understanding it all. The first thought was WTF!, The second was "What a stupid way to die, the third was "the surface doesn't seem to be getting nearer, the fourth was trying to figure out what was going on. My wife and buddy was 10m away in crystal clear vis, She just saw me head up and only caught me when I stopped. Given that 2 independent regs stopped there was no point turning to her. (and I didn't try my Alt either)

But your right complacency gets us all in some form or another even if it's something like rolling in without weights or fins. In your case glad everything turned out fine, and the "fix" is just to re practice the basic skills which we all let slip

 

[Thook]

AMEN my fried. I posted in A&I

 

[Coral_Reefer]

You correctly identified the root cause though...panic. It's the killer and you always need to guard against it. There's almost always and answer before making a bolt for the surface (I say this having experienced it as well).