My first "panic"

[cyberfed]

Hey folks, I was diving out at Blue Springs today and experienced my first rescue/panic incident. It didn't happen to me but my buddy.

We were making our first dive at Blue Springs. My buddy gave me the thumbs up about half way into our dive, so we proceeded to surface. As we started to ascend she began to panic a bit, looking in every direction and started to shoot up to the surface. She had very poor buoyancy skills. As she began to bolt for the surface she also hit her head a few times along the rocks that stick out. I immediately grabbed her and pulled her down so we were both at eye level. I told her she needed to slow down and she acknowledged. I continued to hold her hand while we began our ascent. At around 45 ft she stopped, we both rested on the side of the walls and she seemed to have regained her composure at this point. She was giving the OK sign. After about 2 minutes she gives me the thumbs up signal again. We proceeded we our ascent. Again for some reason (either panic or bad buoyancy skills or both!) and she took off for the surface again. I was not able to grab a hold of her this time ( I had stopped holding her hand after she rested for 2 mins and gave me the OK sign). I started to go after her and realized that now I was ascending too quickly. Instantly I remembered what I was taught and read in the books - You cannot let your buddy put you in a position where you are in harms way as well. I saw that she had reached the surface, I stopped and slowed down. I did my 3 minute safety stop and proceeded to the surface nice and slow.

We talked once we were both on the surface and she explained she had trouble in equalizing. I explained to her that she was ascending way too fast. Her head was fine no bleeding or bumps. We rested for about 45 minutes and she was fine.
We did one more short dive to about 40 ft. This time I knew I needed to help her with her ascent (I had never dove with this person before) I held her hand all the away up to our safety stop and then to the surface with no problems.

I'm a new diver and this was an interesting experience for me. Not once did I freak out but instead I remained calm and thought about what we needed to do. Just thought I would share with fellow divers. I would imagine new divers such as myself might benefit from this post.

 

[Ben_ca]

Good job taking charge of the situation. If I may add a sugestion.

If it happens again in real life skip the 3 min safety stop... your buddy might have embolized and be needing assistance on the surface. I'm not saying match their speed just make it up there at a safe rate then be there ready to render assistance if needed.

Good Job

 

[JahJahwarrior]

I agree with the above poster, skip the safety stop in a situation like this.

I would question the wisdom of diving with a panicky diver again to any depth greater than perhaps 15 feet, for her sake, not for yours. You will be fine most likely, sounds like you kept your wits about you. Scuba is a sport where panic can kill you, to protect a panicky diver, I would tell them not to dive if need be.

Instabuddies can be a very, very dangerous situation, especially at the OW level. OW divers are kind oflike doctors. You know what they call the person who gets a C in med school right? "doctor." similarly, you know what they call the person who just barely passes class, right? "diver."

You handled yourself well but I would be more concerned for your buddy's safety. Sounds like she got it together more, but still, sit down and talk with her about the dive. She might end up embolizing one day if she doesn't work through the issue at hand, if every dive buddy doesn't hold her hand every ascent. Good job on helping the lady out though, the solution to a scary diver isn't to ban them from the water, but to work with them to help them achieve successful, safe diving.

 

[darylb]

Good job keeping yourself safe and doing what you could to help your buddy! Remaining calm is critical, thinking before acting is key! Glad you thought to post this for others too!

Keep in mind that the 3 minute safety stop, while a very important precaution, is still just a precaution. Outside of technical dive training, you use the RDP to plan your dives; the RDP doesn't allow planning of decompression dives. While the safety stop is highly recommended it is not usually life-critical within RDP limits. That said however, you dove within the guidelines of your training, you thought before acting and made a good choice based on your knowledge.

What was your profile? If it were my buddy, I might be concerned about her ascending too quickly and diving again after just a 45 minute SI or within the next 24 hours for that matter.

 

[treywilly]

That's the sign of a good dive buddy, cool and calm under stress........mask of to you!!!!

Great Job!!!!

 

[OceanGirl125]

You did a great job! You will be a good buddy to dive with!

 

[I Dive]

I will dive with Cyberfed any time! Great job! A cool head under pressure is essential for diving. However, I'm not sure I agree with the second dive 45 minutes later. From the little I read, I think I would have called the remainder of the day's diving with that person. At a minimum, that would have given me a full day to look for another dive buddy for future trips...

 

[K Mejean]

I must agree with the others. You did a great job helping your buddy and keeping a cool head. I also think you should have called the other dive but I can see how a new diver could easily make the mistake of doing the second dive. You live and learn. Now you know if it happens again you will be a little better prepared.
Remember a paniced diver can really do you some serious harm if not kill you so keep that in mind in the future. If the diver bolts to the surface like that you might be better off to let them go. Panic can make you do crazy things so use caution but again you did a great job.