Wet Regulator

[NewFloridaDiverLady]

I was doing my Open Water check out dives in Blue Grotto mid April and everything this day started out great – first skills and emergency ascent practice was flawless. After a surface interval, we went in for the second dive. Clear and warm morning, spring water of 68F ; we headed off the platform at 25’ with the intention to go down to 52’ to observe ”Peace Rock” , work on buoyancy control and make a safety stop on the way back. That was the dive plan.

And then it came, all of sudden - no more air, just water... I was breathing out of my second stage, and with the very next breath I took I could feel the water running down in my stomach; very graphic; it’s silent but the feeling of swallowing fresh spring water was very distinct. I tried to take a second breath – rather a sip, and swallowed it, and realized it was water I was breathing. We must have made couple of kicks, could be at 30’ at this point, and going down; I looked up – no clearance – we were in the cave and I could see the fresh air bell at about 30’-40’ up at my left. At this point I was running options in my head and though I didn’t realize I was in a state of panic, I couldn't give the instructor the OOA signal – the one I was taught in class; I rather pointed to my regulator when he asked me if everything is OK – I nodded and pointed to my reg again. That was in the third sip of water inhaled. So I decided I have to go up; started kicking and my instructor, still unable to realize as of “why” I want to surface, was trying to pull me down. I was only thinking of how much air I might have at the tips of my lungs to use to go up sooner.

The last thing I remember with taking the fourth sip of water from my regulator was light reflecting on the surface of the pool and the contour of two divers, kneeing on the platform, getting ready with their gear. This is where I lost it.
When I opened my eyes next time, I was laying on that same platform, my dive buddy and the paramedics over my head, and remember saying: “This is a dream”. I wanted to walk the steps up and go back to finish my dive. Didn’t happen; they took me to the nearest hospital, put me on monitoring for 6 hours, and could hardly believe I had no water in my lungs, with all the life perimeters in norm. So they let me go.

That was Tuesday, 7pm. Wednesday evening I was back in the pool with my instructor, doing basic skills and reassuring him more than anything else that I’m ready to go back, and I want it. By that time I had learned that I had experienced what was called a “wetregulator”. 10 days later we both went back to Blue Grotto, went down to the same platform and dove the 52’; this was May 1st. May 4th I went with my partner to Nassau and dove at Stuarts’ Cove – made 4 dives for 2 days, and it was awesome! We have gotten 8 dives for two weeks period and we are ready for more…

Moral of the experience:
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT] “wet regulator” – never heard of it ; never happened to my instructor nor the in dive shop; now they have incorporated “switching to octo” into their classes
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Skills acquired through basic OW course have to be practiced in order to be useful: re: my inability to communicate OOA – I wish for no one to have to communicate that though.
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]As much as I was able to have some thinking process –it was not the right problem solving reaction – I could have grabbed my octopus or my instructors’: re: panic

 

[james croft]

Glad you did not give up on diving and also realize that you have an alternate souce for air from an octopus and buddy. I have had that happen a few times. Generally speaking water enters from an improperly sealing diaphram, a diaphram with a hole, or a torn mouthpiece. A piece of debris may be hung in the exhaust reg valve. Many times you can clear it by swishing the reg around and depressing the purge while switching to your octopus. Agood pre-dive check is to attach your reg to the tank valve. Do not turn on your air. Attemt to suck air from your reg. If you get air, you have a leaky reg. Find out where the problem is before diving it or you will be getting water in the reg. The box cover of many regulators can be removed easily and examined for sand, tears, etc. that may be the cause for water entering.
Make sure you practice your u/w signals so your buddies know what kind of problems you are having and can asssist you. Glad you are ok and you will become a better diver if you learn from this.

 

[NewFloridaDiverLady]

Thank you James I wouldn’t just give up diving because it’s too easy to do, and than I was so angry at myself for not making the right decision; believe I have a cool head but underwater is different realm I guess. My point and the reason I’m posting this here is to try and help new divers in a scenario they were never thought in class – someone that got two pool sessions with mask clearance and have seen and communicated underwater signals a dozen times at a most; someone who has – like me – never done with a “good friend” prior to learning all the legal side of it; and to say it right – on paper it’s all so logic, but I haven’t practiced signals that much at that point. For the record – I dove the same BCD and regulator and wetsuit in the first dive – no marks of failure – 20 min in the water, check my octo too – was all fine. The equipment belongs to the dive shop where I was taking the course, and yes – again for the record - ever since that happened – 3 weeks ago – haven’t heard back as of the inspection results. So here – you embody trust and than deal with outcome in a way you can. Thank you for the encouragement – if it’s not too vulgar to say – in some way I appreciate the experience as it gave me a limit point – high price but a sneak peak from behind. Thank you!

 

[NewFloridaDiver]

Note: This post by NewFloridaDiverLady should read "Wet Reg Panic almost cost my life"! I say this because I am her dive buddy and I was there that day to witness this incident. I will add some detail and thoughts on what happened as I saw it:

Disclaimer: My comments are in no way meant to de-rate or badmouth the instructor or the LDS involved... they are only observations. That being said, I do have some issues about how things were handled, more on this later.

That day in Blue Grotto, there were three of us doing our OW checkout dives. When we went down for our deep dive, the instructor was "in the lead" and not really watching behind him. He didn't see that DiverLady was having bouyency issues until I brought it to his attention that she was "still up there". Well he went to her and got her down to the platform at 25', got her under control, everything OK. He stayed with her, but soon after heading down deeper I saw that she was struggling with something. I couldn't tell what but it looked like she was having trouble with her ears, as she was pinching her nose and pointing UP. That is was the instructor was seeing too, unfortunately, because he held her down to keep her from shooting to the surface from 30'. She was looking right at him as they slowly went to the surface. She wasn't communicating an OOA signal, only that she wanted to go up.

This is something I realized only later on: she was NOT breathing! As I was watching this, I remember seeing NO bubbles coming from her reg. The instructor would probably not have noticed this because of his own bubbles in front of their faces from his reg. I know now that I saw this from the side angle, but it did not register with me at the time. This girl was taking in water, and couldn't breath without inhaling water, so she stopped breathing! The instructor said that she was looking at him the whole time during the ascent, until she passed out before reaching the surface. That's when I knew that something was terribly wrong, I saw her body relax and fall back, arms limp.

Thank God there were two people at the dock when the instructor pulled her over to it. They were able to haul her limp body up on the dock after the instructor got her gear off. She was NOT breathing when they hauled her up. One of them was a state trooper, and was able to give her the "Kiss of Life", and she started breathing again on her own. Someone had oxygen and got that on in minutes. No water was expelled, but it took several minutes for her to come back. It wasn't but maybe ten minutes before the ambulance came and took her the nearest hospital. Thankfully, she had no water in her lungs and was cleared to leave after over 6 hours of care.

After she was taken to the hospital, the instructor and I checked her rental equipment by shutting off the air, purging the octo, then trying to breathe through the 2nd. Sure enough, you could suck air. He did a cursory check, but didn't take it apart, it looked good. That is all we know about the equipment so far.

Ok, now for some observations and "issues" I have with the LDS and instructor:
Some three weeks later, they haven't had "time" to check this equipment out further and let us know just what happened to the 2nd stage. This doesn't seem right to me. Also, when talking to the owner of the LDS after this incident, he didn't even seem concerned about what happened. He was kind enough to offer free use of the rental equipment for another checkout dive, but said that she would "have to pay" for the instructors time for another checkout dive trip to the Blue Grotto. Later, she gets billed over $1,500 for medical expense incurred. Add insult to injury! I do not fault the instructor whatsoever. He simply did not know that she was not able to breathe, and I credit him with safely bringing her to the surface and getting her gear off. I do have issues with how she's being handled by the LDS, with no offers of compensation, nothing.

I do like this LDS and don't want to create ill feelings, but just how is one supposed to deal with this?

 

[ClayJar]

I do not fault the instructor whatsoever. He simply did not know that she was not able to breathe, and I credit him with safely bringing her to the surface and getting her gear off.

I give kudos to the instructor for the rescue, however, the instructor was at fault, at least in part.

now they have incorporated “switching to octo” into their classes

Above and beyond anything else, scuba diving comes down to breathing underwater. In my first class, while we were going over air sharing, we also were taught that when you need to breathe any reg will do*. Our instructor made a point to make us understand that if we had any problems with our primary (such as it being kicked out, it being greedily grabbed by an OOA buddy, or it just not working), we can always grab our own octo.

It sounds like they've been enlightened and will be teaching this from now on, and I won't hold a grudge against them for omitting it, but not teaching it was most certainly their fault. Anyway, thankfully, it's live and learn.


Now, as for the medical expenses, didn't your dive shop sign you up with a student membership with DAN?!? That's the second thing my LDS does (after getting their waivers, of course). DAN covers students from class through the last checkout dive, but only if the paperwork is done. (And the first thing I did post-certification was get a DAN membership with insurance.)


(*This may not be the case for super-tech-deco divers, but for recreational divers, it works.)

 

[Web Monkey]

I looked up – no clearance – we were in the cave and I could see the fresh air bell at about 30’-40’ up at my left.

Any instructor that takes or allows an OW student to enter a cave or cavern should be severely beaten. The reason they call it an "Open Water" certification is because the surface is open. When you can't directly ascend to the surface, it's no longer Open Water.

I couldn't give the instructor the OOA signal – the one I was taught in class; I rather pointed to my regulator when he asked me if everything is OK – I nodded and pointed to my reg again.

If this ever happens again, and you can't rememember or perform the OOA signal and you need air, go over to your buddy or the closest diver you can find and grab the one he's breathing on. He has an alternate and should be fine.

When you're back on the surface, you can explain "I was out of air".



Terry

 

[SparticleBrane]

Ok, ditch the instructor--they're obviously a blithering idiot. Avoid this instructor at all costs.
Why the @#$@#$%#@$^ were you taken into an OVERHEAD ENVIRONMENT for your open water training?! :shakehead :shakehead
Overhead environments require extensive training and experience...they are NOT where you go for open water training...


edit: The reason you could suck air through the reg without it turned on was most likely due to a bad diaphraghm or a diaphragm not sealed correctly. This is an easy fix, and personally I think basic equipment preventative maintenance and equipment malfunctioning drills should be taught in open water classes.
Note that all she had to do in this situation, unless her tank was empty, was to purge the reg and look slightly downwards to breathe...

I also have issues with this "deep dive" that was planned. The plan was to go down to 52' for an open water training dive? What the heck?

 

[laurelgsc]

Ummmm..... Red flag here. Switching to my Octo was a big part of my OW training. I can't believe it wasn't covered in your class. The whole situation could have been avoided had they not skipped that simple skill. Makes you wonder....

 

[SparticleBrane]

^ The whole situation could have been avoided before the dive, had the instructor made a point of doing a vacuum test on regulators before using them.

 

[pickledboodah]

Wow! Overhead environment and down to 51' on a checkout dive!!!! Why not just go to 160'?

Holy moley!!