Swollen eyes

[Water Monkey]

I made a dive today with a young man who was making his first Nitrox dive. He has a total of around thirty dives now. The mix was 31.9 % o2 and we had planned to go to 80 feet max. At about sixty feet he stopped me and motioned to me that he was having trouble seeing. I was thinking, ok it’s a little darker down here and your mask is fogged up. But he was pretty insistent so I took it up to 40 feet. After a minute or two at 40 I asked him if he was ok and he answered back yes, I asked him if he was ok to go back down and he said yes, since our plan had been altered I leveled off at 60 feet and I was planning on keeping it there for a max bottom. But then as soon as we leveled off at sixty feet again he motioned to me again that he could not see. This time I'm thinking tunnel vision and toxicity, so I called the dive and we got out of the water with a total dive time of less than ten minutes. Back on the boat he pulled his mask off, his eyes were very puffy and he told me that at one point his eyes had swollen completely shut! It came on very quick, with in maybe one or two minutes at depth and there was pretty much instant relief at 40 feet then the swelling was back again by the time we hit sixty feet. This is a new one for me. I’m thinking mask squeeze. But I have seen mask squeeze before and it didn’t look like that. I’m at a loss here.

 

[dmoore19]

I was talking to another diver recently and she had had problems with her eyes on a dive and it was caused by not rinsing her mask off throughly after applying the defog. It may be some kind of an allergy from the defog stuff. Don't know for sure but I would think it would be possible. Did he go see a doctor?

 

[Water Monkey]

I was talking to another diver recently and she had had problems with her eyes on a dive and it was caused by not rinsing her mask off throughly after applying the defog. It may be some kind of an allergy from the defog stuff. Don't know for sure but I would think it would be possible. Did he go see a doctor?

Good point, I know he does use some kind of defog. But it seemed to be pressure related.

I don't think he went to the doctors, by the time we got to dock his eyes were still a little swollen but pretty much back to normal.

 

[carrielsal]

I think this would be worth a call to DAN.

 

[Water Monkey]

I did suggest that he call DAN but I don’t know if he has or not.

 

[carrielsal]

I did suggest that he call DAN but I don’t know if he has or not.

If he did and you find out, I would be very interested to know what they say.

 

[TSandM]

My first thought would be an allergic reaction to something either on his hands or in his mask. You can get puffiness and hemorrhage in the eyes and skin from squeeze, but I don't think anyone would be able to tolerate enough squeeze for long enough to get the eyelids to swell the eyes completely shut.

 

[Water Monkey]

I’m thinking allergies now too; I made some minor changes to my fill station the day before. I changed out the filters and I added a fill whip. I pulled a hose out of my pile for the additional whip that was of questionable origin. It had been on a different fill station before mine. It’s a different material than the rest of my hoses and I did fill his cylinder from that fill whip. I’m going to pull an air sample today and send it in. Then I’m going to change out that hose just in case.

 

[cutlass]

Sounds like you're doing the right things. Facial swellings always raise great concern for airway patency. Unfortunately, allergic reactions (if that's what this is*) can be unpredictable; causative agents can also be difficult to track down. Obviously, he must be closely monitored on subsequent dives.

*It's a bit atypical that no itching or redness was reported, although these may have been suppressed somewhat by exposure to cold water. That the acute condition of eyes swollen shut was relieved so quickly upon ascent also struck me as odd.

 

[Water Monkey]

Just when you think you have seen it all something new comes along.

I think the jury is in on the swollen eyes though. And the verdict in my opinion is mask squeeze.

I thought it was odd as well that there was no burning or itching. I asked him several times while we were still on the boat and he said no.

The young man did not seek medical attention, however I did go see him today to find out how he was doing. As soon as I looked at him I could see that he had ruptured blood vessels in both eyes but no swelling, which is consistent with several mask squeeze incidents that I have seen before. I did encourage him to seek medical attention again, but in your early twentys you still believe that you’re invincible and he has not.

Thank you all who responded to this post!