Rescues and bouyancy control

[Uncle Pug]

YorkDiver once bubbled...
how bad of a seizure would be person be having?

Grand Mal

 

[YorkDiver]

So not something that you will miss then.

Thanx

 

[Uncle Pug]

YorkDiver once bubbled...
So not something that you will miss then.

If your the one having it you will probably miss it.

 

[YorkDiver]

lol...no comment

 

[John C. Ratliff]

YorkDiver asked about the nature of an O2 toxicity seizure. Not too many people realize that we got the compressed air open circuit scuba because of O2 toxicity. Here's what Cousteau wrote in his book, The Silent World .

The gunsmith of my cruiser, the Suffren, built an oxygen rebreathing apparatus I designed. He transformed a gas-mask canister of soda lime, a small oxygen bottle, and a length of motorbike inner tube into a lung that repurified exhalations by filtering out the carbon dioxide in the soda lime. It was self-contained, one could swim with it, and it was silent. Swimming twenty-five feet down with the oxygen apparatus was the most serene thrill I have had in the water. Silent and alone in a trancelike land, one was accepted by the sea. My euphoria was all too short.

Having been told that oxygen was safe down to forty-five feet, I asked two sailors from Suffren to man a dinghy above me, while I dived to the boundary of oxygen. I went down with a ceremonious illusion...Ninety fgeet away I saw an aristocratic group of silver and gold giltheads wearing their scarlet gill patches like British brigadiers...I started chasing a fish and cornered him off in his cave. He bristled his dorsal fins and rolled his eyes uneasily. He made a brave decision and sprang at me, escaping by inches. Below I saw a big blue dentex (bream) with a bitter mouth and hostile eyes. He was hanging about fort-five feet down. I descended and the fish backed away, keeping a good distance.

Then my lips began to tremble uncontrollably. My eyelids fluttered.

My spine was bent backward like a bow.

With a violent gesture I tore off the belt weight and lost consciousness.

The sailors saw my body reach the surface and quickly hauled me into the boat.

I had pains in neck and muscles for weeks. I thought my soda lime must have been impure. I spent the winter on the Suffren building an improved oxygen lung, one that would not induce convulsions. In the summer I went back to the same place off Porquerolles and went down forty-five feet with the new lung. I convelsed so suddenly that I do not remember jettisoning my belt weight. I came very near drowning. It was the end of my interest in oxygen.

Cousteau, J.Y.; The Silent World, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York 1953, pages 16-17.

 

[The Iceni]

Genesis once bubbled...
You can't bring a toxing/toxed diver up in the water column until he resumes breathing.

If you do, you will severely injure or kill him.

. . . .

was "if the reg is out of his mouth, the odds of survival are nearly zero."

Hi Genesis,

I think I recently proved that this is not correct!!!

However, I would suggest that a Controlled Buoyant Lift is to be greatly preferred to simply releasing the victim's weight belt.

 

[Genesis]

Welcome back

I think the more "finely sharpened" point on the issue is that bringing up a diver who has his airway locked shut due to a seizure is an extraordinarily bad idea.

The problem and challenge is what you do if you find a diver on the bottom and have no idea what preceded the loss of consciousness - and in what order do you do it?

I was (and still do!) challenge the dicta of many of the agencies that the proper response to such a situation is to dump the victim's weights.

 

[devilfish]

Genesis once bubbled...

I was (and still do!) challenge the dicta of many of the agencies that the proper response to such a situation is to dump the victim's weights.

If the airway is in fact closed, what differance does the rate of ascent make for the victim. The expansion will still be the same by the time the victim reaches the surface since no air is escaping.

 

[Genesis]

and you bring him up he dies from a massive pulmonary embolism.

This is true even if he doesn't have a "breath" in his lungs, since the residual volume is considerable and enough to get him even if the tidal volume is completely exhausted.

That is my concern in such a situation - determining if the airway is open or closed. Being wrong (either way!) and making a decision based on a belief that turns out to be incorrect could easily be fatal. :boom:

 

[MikeFerrara]

Dr Paul Thomas once bubbled...
Hi Genesis,

I think I recently proved that this is not correct!!!

However, I would suggest that a Controlled Buoyant Lift is to be greatly preferred to simply releasing the victim's weight belt.

Glad to see you back.

I wouldn't suggest resorting to such extreme measures to prove a point (joking of course)

I hope you don't mind me asking (I can't help myself) and of course feel free to not answer but was your accident O2 toxicity?