U/W Emergencies...please contribute your experience

[scubagatorgal]

On another thread we were discussing emergencies and practice habits. What is clear is that most divers do not practice emergency skills enough and that there is not enough thought given to the many different types of emergencies that are potentially possible.

As I have two teens that I am drilling on emergency procedures (Aw, Mom...not again!) I am very interested in people recounting emergencies they experienced or witnessed and discussion as to the safest way to resolve them. I may have to spring some new ones on them...

Thanks in advance for everyone's help on this one...

 

[MikeFerrara]

I was present at a dive site yesterday when a diver surfaced alone and yelled for help. I was in the water about to begin a deep dive with an Advanced Nitrox student. I asked one of our DM's to respond. It turnes out the guy was (he said) at 49 ft. His buddy an open water certified diver was much deeper (they were purposly seperated. His computer indicated that he had been to 70 ft. The divers inflator stuck, he failed to respond in a meaningful way and was shot to surface. DAN was notified and EMS was activated. The diver aparently didn't suffer any injuries. I have seen inflators stick a number of times and have never seen it controlled. It is an example of a simple thing that catches divers off gard. Believe it or not the diver spent his ascent time trying to ditch his BC. Talk about clueless.

 

[TheDivingBear]

You mean to inflate his BC??? Uh, novice diver here (and not in a panicky situation), but wouldn't you just use one hand to open the safety valve in the back (to slow you ascent) and the other to pop the connector to the valve? Sure, you would lose some air from the tank (until you got the connector loose), but....uh.... would you WANT to continue the dive with faulty equipment??

Just my thoughts,

Bear (still working towards his OW)

 

[MikeFerrara]

If you are oriented head up you would vent as normal and disconnect the inflator hose. In the PADI open water course this is a required skill in confined water module two. The skill is to be performen at the surface or in shallow water.

 

[seylerdl]

On one of my OW cert. dives, my rented BC inflator valve stuck in the open position while I was down. My instructor had not covered this contingency yet, but it seemed that the logical thing to do was to disconnect my LP inflator hose and vent air out of the BC. I guess I rose about 10 feet off the bottom before getting this under control. Continued the dive by inflating the BC with my mouth. If I had been more panicked, who knows what I might have done.....

Dave

 

[art.chick]

The very week after we finished our Rescue class, a diver surfaced unable to signal except by waving his snorkel weakly. A teen spotted him & shouted to other divers on the surface. As they dragged him to the shore, someone yelled to set up the Dan O2 kit. I took care of that, & every rescuer surrendered their role to the next person from the surf zone to the shore til the EMS crew arrived & we handed them a slate with all the pertinent info on it. The guy was ok, we found out later, but here was the scenario:

"Jeff" had been diving with 3 friends & was breathing hard & ran out of air at about 30'. They signalled for him to go up & waved goodbye. On his way up, he aspirated water. Obviously, buddy protocol was non-existant. One has to question whether they discussed a dive plan before the dive. Emergency swimming ascent would have been a good drill to prepare for this. The snorkel waving signal obviously worked, and one cannot get too picky if someone is already in the process of drowning, but why not rehearse emergency signals?

There are many things that can be learned from this scenario about safety drills.

 

[Liquid]

Scubagatorgal, to your request, here are some drills which I either teach practicaly in water, or at least discuss with students:

1) As it was discussed, I'll start with inflator button get's stuck:

This usualy happens either with rented gear or with personal gear that is not cleaned properly. The reason- very simple, dirt stucks the button. Prevention also simple-thorough gear check before the dive and proper caring for equipment.

The solution- Go upside down (feet up, head down), push forcefully down with your fins. With your right hand pull the quick relise valve located in the lower back of the bc (or, when upside-down, in the upper back), while doing it, with your left hand take the inflator hose, put in your mouth and release the button with your teeth. Only boddyli part guarentied to release it, no matter how severe the stuck.

2) Out of air situation:

Usualy happens to careless divers, that do not pay attention to their gauges, or to divers that didnt pre-check the equipment to see their o-ring is in a bad shape or the outer hoses are cracked.
Prevention: pre-check equipmen properly. Check you gauges constantly, and alwais be aware of your air situation.

Solution-Depends on situation. Usualy air dosent end suddenly. It get's "Thiner" and "thinner" untill finished. Even if an o-ring pops in the middle of a dive you still have a minuete or two of air (unless you'r already on reserve, which you shouldnt be on). If your buddy is close, go to hime and ask/take air (depends on the methods you were tought). If you'r alone do an emergency ascent. Unless your need for air is reall BAD, ascend slowly, try to get some air during ascent. If you'r in a bad need for air either swim up fast or ditch weight belt. The chances to get DCI are low, as long as you stayed within the tables (though it's no diving for youfor the rest of the day), as the tables are suposed to leave you with no ceiling in any part of the dive.

3) Equipment entanglement:

Practice Doning and Doffing equipment IN water. Try with closed eyes (to simulate a bad vision status, which is the most likely status to get entangled in). Carry a knife, so you can cut whatever get's you stuck.

4) practice inflating the BC with your mouth on the surface. This way even if the tank is out of air, you are still able to inflate bc and float safely. Keep in mind also that you can ditch the weight belt on surface.

To conclude-Most deaths of divers are not due to DCS or AGE, but rather due to drowning. In 90% of the drowning cases, divers where found with their weight belt still on, and some air in their tanks. Ditching weight belt is an important skill that can be a life saver. Practice it. So is inflating a BC with the mouth on surface ("Bobbing method"). a diver that floats on the surface is a diver that won't drown, even if he has DCS due to quick ascent. This can be delt in an HBO. Death due to drowning can't.

 

[MikeFerrara]

"The solution- Go upside down (feet up, head down), push forcefully down with your fins. With your right hand pull the quick relise valve located in the lower back of the bc (or, when upside-down, in the upper back), while doing it, with your left hand take the inflator hose, put in your mouth and release the button with your teeth. Only boddyli part guarentied to release it, no matter how severe the stuck."



per the above
with many inflators (when stuck) releasing the button may not help. The button will push the valve but will not pull. The zeagle for instance has a schrader valve inside. If the valve is what is stuck or leaking pulling the button will do nothing. The button may not be stuck at all. Do not take the reg out of your mouth. The act of using your teeth as a tool and breathing out and trying to swim down seems like a bad comination to me.

Just dump via the bc deflator unless you are head down already (unlikely). If I was head down I would role out as with a dry suit to get head up. You will need both hands on the inflator to dump and disconnect the hose. With one hand behind on the dump you will be unable to disconnect the inflator hose. Once the hose is disconnected and things are under control you can chew on the button if you want. A good inflator will dump as fast as it inflates. Then simply disconnect the hose. This procedure is simple and it works

 

[vicky]

It seems that too many divers found dead on the bottom failed to ditch their weights. I have seen lots of cases related to failing in weight ditching in scubadiving.com and lots of them in BSAC's website.
In the last year we had two weight-related fatal incidents in Israel:
- A diver with separation problems panicked after water penetrated his mask (Why he was certified at all is another discussion). He zoomed to the surface, waived and flailed with his hands. He began removing his BC, threw away his mask and fins. The only single piece of equipment he failed (or forgot) to remove was his weights... By the time people got close to him he already sunk to the bottom and drowned. By the way, autopsy showed no signs of DCS despite the fast ascent, so had he removed his weights he could have survived...
-A diver was having difficulties while swimming to the divesite against the current. He got separated from his two buddies and got very tired. A diver who has just finished his dive saw him and tried to help: he removed the stressed diver's weights. However, the weights got stuck on the octopus and dragged the diver to the bottom. He drowned.

I am not sure it is a bad idea to practice weight ditching. Apparently, stressed divers seem to disregard/forget this important piece of equipment.

 

[MikeFerrara]

In the PADI open water class we practice weight ditching at the surface in confined water module two and open water dive two. This is another example of a simple response that divers often fail to do. It seems divers are to quick to drop weights at depth and to slow to ditch them at the surface. On a side note: yes divers are found dead with weights still in place but that doesn't mean that the weights were to blame. Divers practice these things in class (if they get a real class) then never give it another thought. In order to maintain proficiency one must train. If you don't train you will go backwards.