Personal involvement in a scuba diving related emergency?

[scubadada]

Have you ever personally been involved, actively or inactively, in a scuba diving related emergency? This could have occurred to you, one of your shore diving group, or someone on your boat. The exact definition and magnitude of the emergency will be left open. With just 10 choices, not all possible emergencies could be listed, carbon monoxide poisoning, severe entanglement, etc. There is a choice for other, with specification in the thread.

Of course, unlimited choices can be made and choices can be changed.

I posted in Basic Scuba Diving to increase visibility, it may not be the right place.

 

[tursiops]

Good poll. Should be interesting.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Three OOAs ... all my buddy or someone in our group but not me! All three ended up OK but things got chaotic on two of them and did not go according to plan due to my buddy panicking and losing his cotton-picking mind. The third went like clockwork because the OOA diver stayed calm.

 

[boulderjohn]

My "other" vote explanation:

I was on a cave exploration team, but not in the water, when two members of our team had difficulty getting out of the very narrow cave they were exploring. One of them didn't make it.

 

[uncfnp]

2 plus other: not really “emergency” but facial fractures from impact with tank valve

 

[scubadada]

2 plus other: not really “emergency” but facial fractures from impact with tank valve

I'd go with that one. I'm going to add one to my list, will specify later.

 

[Edward3c]

Two assists.

One: Drysuit inflator stuck open. Stayed with buddy on assent ready to supply gas if required.
One: Primary reg in free flow, Controlled speed of assent and ready to supply gas if required

 

[arew+4]

How about a nope nada never, or better choice, not yet.

 

[Bob DBF]

Other consisted of several entanglements, mostly assisting others. Also an old school in water recompression for DCI, since it worked and was never diagnosed by a doctor, I didn't check the box. I assisted with a diver that made an uncontrolled ascent, I never heard what his issue was, I just pitched in and assisted swimming him to shore to the waiting ambulance.

Just so it doesn't sound like I'm a floating train wreck, I've been diving since '62 and there is always a long stretches of uneventful diving between moments of unexpected excitement.



Bob
I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.

 

[scubadada]

So, I had been thinking. I've done a few over 1900 dives since 1997. I've only been involved in 4 scuba related emergencies.

Unfortunately, 2 involved me. I was tying into the Castor in Boynton Beach in screaming current and ruptured my left eardrum. I was immediately near incapacitated by severe vertigo. I was very lucky to have completed the tie in. The vertigo largely resolved over the remainder of the dive and I untied uneventfully. Funny, I generally auto clear under all circumstances, not this time. I sat out for several weeks and apparently healed the rupture. In 2013, I was hit by a boat in Delray, racing in from a fishing tournament in a zero visibility summer squall. I made an emergency descent and was only grazed by one of the props on my left foot. The laceration was closed in a local emergency department and the avulsion fracture healed on its own.

On another dive on the Castor, I was diving solo and had contact with a group of three whom I knew. On surfacing, I was told one of them had gone OOA and had near drowning. He was saved by his buddy and the folks on the boat. I was picked up by another boat in the area. Lastly, I was on a local dive boat when an elderly gentleman (significantly older that myself) collapsed and became unresponsive. He had a pulse and BP and was treated supportively. He was subsequently transferred to a medical care facility by ambulance from the dock.