Vertigo on deco

[DA Aquamaster]

Some people suggested that she should have sent up an smb, however if the severity of her vertigo was anything like the severity that I experience once in a while, performing that function would be impossible.

I don't thing anyone has suggested shooting the bag after the onset of vertigo, but rather that it makes a lot more sense to shoot a bag prior to starting the ascent for a diver who has issues with vertigo in mid water. The purpose of teaching vertigo in instrument flight training it two fold - you need to know you can deal with it if it occurs, but more importantly you learn that you want to avoid it whene ever possible. Shooting a bag would help avoid the vertigo in the first place.

Do you carry a lot of life insurance or does your husband have a girl on the side?

Fact #1: This is something that has happened to you before, more than once by the sound of it.
Fact #2: Your husband could see you the whole time and you weren't responding to his signals though you were obviously looking right at him at some point during the episode.
Fact #3: You were behaving in a visibly erratic as you tried to regain your bearings.
Fact #4: He didn't get his ass over to you to make sure everything was right in your world.

Assumption #1: Your husband was aware of your propensity to experience vertigo, right?
Assumption #2: Your husband wasn't having an issue that forced him to ascend without you for his safety.
Assumption #3: Your husband doesn't have any sort of issue that would have prevented him from coming to you while you were in difficulty.

Look, Lynne, I really can appreciate your taking full responsibility for what was going on with you under the water. That's the mature attitude to have. Obviously, I'm joking about his intent to see you come to harm. That said, it would seem your husband was a lousy buddy in more ways than one....

I did not want to come out and say it directly, but this is the heart of the matter. It's a known problem and the dive plan should have been made to avoid it, and then dove that way.

Based on your experience and known personal limits, you are not comfortable at an END of 90 ft in a cave and would consequently not accept a situation that woudl pace you at risk due to narcosis. Don't treat this any differently. Pete wanting to go shallow to conserve gas is a lame reason to place you in this situation. He needed to suck it up and accept a shorter second dive or look at other options such as switching to full tanks for dive 2, getting a new fill, or skipping a second dive. None of those options would have placed you at risk.

I think your plan to scooter in along the bottom was a good way to adapt the plan to conserve gas to meet Petes new goal, but communicating it was apparently problematic. You could use wet notes, but that takes time, so it also requires some discipline and a committment by the whole team to ensure the whole team understands and agrees with any mid dive changes in plans before executing the change. If in doubt, default to the original plan.

This may or may not apply to you but often it is a diving couples issue where both parties need to be fully aware of the interpersonal dynamics and be respectful enough not to take any liberties with a partner that they would not take with an unrelated team member. Technical diving couples also need to ensure they switch up the lead from dive to dive to ensure neither party gets cast in the role as "the" leader, and that everyone's skills stay sharp.

In any case, there needs to be a serious discussion/debrief to ensure that similar issues do not re-occur in the future. Marci and I have had a couple issues come up where we have had to come to agreement on how we handle dive plan changes and communication issues underwater, but the end result of resolvoing them has been an even better buddy team and very enjoyable dives even under very challenging conditions. A big part of that is continually being aware of how the other diver is doing and adjusting the plan or pace as needed to ensure everyone stays in their comfort level.

 

[BabyDuck]

the underwater discussions tend to have lots of rude hand gestures, but that's what deco's for - cooling off before talking rationally with that *****head you're in love with.

way to go, lynne! i know how you hate that personal bear, and it didn't get you this time!

 

[Peter Guy]

I've refrained from responding because I don't want to be, or sound, defensive. However, I think now is the time for my observations of the incident.

a. Was there a screw up? Yes -- primarily that we didn't have a firmly fixed return plan. We had discussed the deco plan which had been to follow a "normal" step profile up to the gas switch and that is the plan I thought we were doing since we had been doing the stepped increases towards our gas switch at 20 feet.

b. Was there confusion? Yes -- especially when Lynne pulled out her scooter at 30 feet as I thought we were getting ready to go to the gas switch. I had no idea she wanted to stay at 30 feet and she agreed to go to 20. After that agreement, as I was the lead, I hit the trigger and started up -- after a few seconds came off the trigger to make sure she was with me and, of course, she wasn't.

c. Was she in obvious distress? No. That is the interesting thing from my POV. What I saw was a diver about 8-10 feet from me who was doing nothing. I didn't see any obvious, or quite frankly even non-obvious, signs of distress. For all I knew, she just hadn't unlocked the trigger which was why she hadn't moved. Rather than going back down, I just watched, waited and let her know where I was by flashing her hands and waiting for a response.

d. Did I return? Yes. After not getting any response in a reasonable time, I went back down to her and was concerned we had dropped below 30 feet (although not much below). It then took some time to finally get squared away, we finished the deco and scootered in.

e. It was not until we got to the surface and talked that I had any idea she'd had a problem -- other than not being as responsive as she normally is.

To repeat, what was observable was someone who was just hanging in the water about 8 feet below and behind me, breathing normally but not responding to light signals -- not someone who was flailing, somersaulting, or anything else.

 

[TSandM]

If you lost him after the gas switch, you'd have been pretty thoroughly screwed. Pick a good direction to go when you have a deco obligation and are sucking on 100% 02.

One of the things my tech instructor definitely wanted to see us demonstrate was that we were aware of which gas we were breathing, and what it meant. Since I was able to think through the options of up or down, I would hope that I would remember to get off the deco regulator and at least onto my necklace if I got unstable after the gas switch.

It is clear from Peter's version of the incident, that the period of time during which I was flailing was quite brief. It didn't feel that short, but subjective time is always longer when you're in the middle of a problem. Per Peter's computer download, the whole incident, from him hitting the trigger to us regrouping, took 3 minutes.

In any incident, you can almost always go back step by step and see how the problem occurred.

Back one: Buddy separation made me search, and head movement gave me vertigo.
Back two: Poor communication at the time Peter signaled to move up resulted in two different ideas of what we were going to do.
Back three: Poor planning before we got in the water resulted in nobody have a clear idea of whether we were going to swim in or do a direct ascent and surface scooter home.

Peter doesn't suffer, and has never suffered from any kind of disorientation or vertigo in the water, and I think he does forget that I do, or dismisses it. We have had some significant arguments about team positioning in the past! But it really is my responsibility to bring it up in dive planning, and come up with a strategy that minimizes the likelihood of me losing all visual reference. I just didn't think this dive through before we did it.

Oh, and firstdive2005, no history of significant head trauma, and my lousy sense of balance goes back at least to my teens.

 

[lamont]

To repeat, what was observable was someone who was just hanging in the water about 8 feet below and behind me, breathing normally but not responding to light signals -- not someone who was flailing, somersaulting, or anything else.

Well, "not responding to light signals" is a problem that needs fixing -- and even just being out of position like that is still a problem that needs fixing. First step of fixing that would be to eliminate the vertical separation and establish positive eye contact.

It sounds like there was a bunch of different issues going on here, but even if a buddy signals to go up, then if the buddy doesn't follow, that's an immediate vertical separation issue that needs to get resolved. vertical separation always makes me fairly uncomfortable since its much harder to track and keep a team together and to respond to any issues.

 

[gcbryan]

This other issue just to state the obvious I guess is that when questions of self sufficiency are brought up regarding UTD vs some other protocol it's always mentioned that the team doesn't separate unlike other forms of diving so this will never happen.

My view has always been that everyone is less than perfect and of course this kind of thing can and will happen. The answer is usually that well it won't happen at the same time that a buddy is actually needed (two failures won't occur).

This just sounds a little weak to me as an argument. I have no doubt that Lynne and Peter will learn from this dive and every other dive just as everyone else does but it does show that teams don't stay together even with a lot of practice anymore than buddies stay together without exceptions occurring. Maybe it would be better to acknowledge that these things may occur from time to time and have a better plan for being a more self sufficient diver even to the point of gaining some solo experience.

 

[bsee65]

Peter doesn't suffer, and has never suffered from any kind of disorientation or vertigo in the water, and I think he does forget that I do, or dismisses it. We have had some significant arguments about team positioning in the past! But it really is my responsibility to bring it up in dive planning, and come up with a strategy that minimizes the likelihood of me losing all visual reference. I just didn't think this dive through before we did it.

Two sides to every story, eh? I apologize if I drew incorrect conclusions based upon the original description of the event. That said, it still would dappear as Lynne is accurate. Peter didn't mention or acknowledge the vertigo. Failing to account for the possibility in the dive plan should have been a letter item in his list of mistakes if he *really* took it seriously. How many dives have you two done together? I'm assuming quite a few. My girlfriend has bad ears and I wouldn't plan a dive with her and not take that into account. Because I know that she equalizes slowly, I would never take the lead going up or down. Is it really that hard to ascend and descend together in most water conditions?

If Peter were a rent-a-buddy, then it would be hard to criticize his actions based upon his version of events. This isn't about proving who screwed up anyway, it's about preventing it from becoming a safety hazard in the future. With the expectation that you're frequent dive partners, the responsibility has to be shared. If you have any sort of dive planning checklist that you review when planning, then accounting for vertigo should be on it. Your plan needs to anticipate the possibility, trying to avoid it, and your partner needs to be made aware that it happens to you so they can identify it and act accordingly before you accidentally shoot to the surface or bottom. That would mean also specifying that the right response to a suspected vertigo episode is for your partner to maneuver into your line of sight while being prepared that you might ascend or descend without warning.

One strong positive take-away is that you were able to keep your wits when the vertigo hit. Even if you didn't know which way was up for a short time, you did know which way you preferred to go to get to a place where you could re-acclimate. It sounds like you had enough control to consult your gauges and manage your buoyancy even if you had no idea which way was up.

In the end, it's better to be a bit more conservative rather than deal with the result of a preventable accident, right?

 

[TSandM]

bsee, absolutely, and the funny thing is that, had I been diving with a less known buddy, I would have talked about my midwater issues and ensured that they knew and that we came up with a conservative plan. It was only because I was diving with my husband that it never crossed my mind to bring it up. That's a good point about diving with known buddies -- it's probably a good idea to review everybody's shortcomings before embarking on a dive that approaches anybody's limits.

 

[firstdive2005]

Holy crap, bringing your episode here bring brought a lot of awareness to me, not only to diving. I can't express my gratitude well enough.

 

[Ayisha]

I have had serious problems with vertigo in midwater since I started diving, and only about a year ago did someone give me the key -- rapid head movement with no visual reference will start me tumbling. Since I got that piece of advice, I haven't had an episode. But on this dive...

Hi Lynne, I got vertigo apparently caused by acute labyrinthitis over a year ago. It followed a sinus infection that had been poorly treated by a sinus rinse and then later the needed antibiotics. It often follows a respiratory infection. It is apparently an infection of the inner ear and the fluid crystallizes, causing the imbalance. My doctor said the vertigo should last about 2 weeks but it lasted 6 weeks. I woke up and went to bed with the room spinning, and any quick change in head position had me falling to the ground in a split second. Sometimes I could catch myself, sometimes it was so severe I just dropped - and this was throughout each day for 6 weeks. One day I woke up and the room wasn't spinning and it hasn't come back yet. The cause is different from diving vertigo, but I empathize with the symptoms you had and how quickly everything becomes a blur and out of control.

Vertigo can be curtailed by returning the head to a neutral position and avoiding any sudden changes in head position.

Diving vertigo is apparently caused by uneven equalization of each ear. When one ear is clearing faster than the other on descent or releasing pressure faster than the other on ascent, it can cause vertigo in a diver. It is more common with ascents, but it can also happen on descent or while doing a valsalva manouvre. It is important to avoid diving if you are congested or recently had a cold, since this can impair equalization. If you are prone to Alternobaric Vertigo, you have to make sure that you descend or ascend slowly and no faster than the slower ear. You also need to avoid rapid head movements and you've figured out other things that work for you, like avoiding blue water ascents.

My doctor had prescribed me Novo-Betahistine, basically motion sickness pills, so that I could work without falling all over the place at the time that I had it. I could not even think about diving at that time, and I did not ask if those pills could be used while diving, but I suspect it might not be a good idea.

There is also vestibular rehab to provide excercises in preventing vertigo, and the excercises can help you in improving your balance and equilibrium in general. As a Montessori teacher, one of the things we do is excercises with children to improve their balance and equilibrium, which can avoid the underdevelopment of the vestibular sense in adults.

Hope that helps...