Near drowning incident - November 12, 2016

[The Chairman]

The often repeated mantra of not being overweighted becomes less and less valid with increasing dive complexity and gear.

Negative. This was an OW diver with a jacket BC. I bet the tank was an 80 as well and they were wearing a 5 mil or better wet suit. It's one thing if you're negative and you don't have any weight on you, but according to @kensuf, this guy still had his integrated weights on. The only reason to add weight if you're negative is you have a trim issue. In that case, I would be searching for a different solution.

 

[kensuf]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to wrap up an article I'm working on for UWS this evening, so will keep my response short.

This was NOT a cave diving incident. The diver was an OW diver with a single tank (AL80, I believe). I'm not positive, but I believe his buddies were the two divers that were less than 5' away. They all appeared to be part of a larger group that had just finished a dive and it's my belief they were leisurely floating on the surface waiting for a turn at the stairs when his BC failed, but the two other divers were heavily engrossed in conversation.

As for the comment about not going to the hospital, I agree and was shocked that he declined transport. Secondary drowning can be a serious concern; for those that don't know, your lungs have a mucous lining that can get washed away by water during a drowning, once it's gone they can get inflamed and weep fluid into the lungs causing you to drown on your own body fluids --- ewww.

Daedalus is spot on when I said "ask for help." Just ask someone to pay attention to you even if you think it'll be OK and no risk of anything going wrong. For instance, I always ask my buddy to have eyes on me when I do a valve drill even if I'm only doing it in 3' of water.

As to the comment about "it's not always the ones your with" (I'm paraphrasing the dude with the great first name that begins with K) -- that is 100% truth. I've managed to pull off four "rescues" in the last five years and only one was someone I was with. My most memorable one was when I was on vacation trying my hand at stand-up paddleboarding, and failing miserably, when I heard someone shout "help, help, I'm cramping and can't swim!"

As for me, once I was able to pass him off and he began to regain consciousness I asked if I could be relieved to focus on my class. He was in good hands and I was able to give a report to the surface crew after.

BTW, my student completed his Cave 1 training yesterday.

 

[clownfishsydney]

It has been mentioned, but the big no-no in my opinion is you should never take off your mask when in the water, never remove your reg from your mouth till you are back on the shore or the boat and never remove your fins till you are holding the boat ladder, on the boat, on the shore or able to stand. Not removing them still permits you to function as a scuba diver, without you are just a potential object on the bottom of the ocean (lake, pond etc).

Too many times I see instructors permitting, perhaps even encouraging, divers to remove masks when in the water. Also talking to the students when they do not need to, for examply discussing the dive as they swim back on the surface to the exit point, with students also with regs out.

The one thing I insist about friends who come on my boat is making sure that everyone has their mask and reg in and fins on all the time they are in the water (my boat is easily boarded with fins on). They refuse to do this, then they can find someone else to dive with.

 

[Dan]

Silent Drowning: How to Spot the Signs and Save a Life | SafeBee

I had a first hand experience of this silent drowning & survived. When I was 5 years old, still didn't know how to swim, I went to a resort with family & friends. As typical kids, we play near a pool while the parents relaxing & chatting on the pool side lawn chairs. One of my friend kidding around near the edge of the pool, accidentally bumped me towards the pool & I slipped into the pool. I was flailing to get to the surface but my body kept sinking. Every time I was gasping for air I ended up swallowing water and I actually felt better, feeling like a fish & kept swallowing more water. Finally I sank to 15' deep pool bottom. I layed flat face up looking to pool surface. Everything was so peaceful, as if I was in heaven. Then I saw a shadow coming towards me. It was my dad. He rescued me. When we get back to the pool side, he just picked me up by my feet, tapped my tummy a few times until water gushing out of my mouth. Afterwards, I learnt how to swim.

 

[Redshift]

Many valid points have been discussed in this thread and, while some of the problems are physiological (such as those regarding the behaviour during a drowning incident) and cannot be changed, there were many others that are caused or enabled by training. I think we have so much evidence of how training is not preparing students properly that it's about time to put pressure for things to change.

We are seeing more attempts at not overweighting students, but that can truly only change when the teaching style also becomes more neutral, off the bottom.

Despite studies on how drownings occur, I think rescue training is not giving enough emphasis to reality when going over the exercises. Nor to the fact that people should be vigilant and aware of what's going on around them.

I wonder how much incidents like this one are also a consequence of culture. I started diving with people from the centre where I was trained and there was always a culture of looking out for the newer divers and in generally lending a helping hand. This made people feel that helping each other was a normal thing, even if they had never met before. And on the other hand, also makes people more comfortable to ask for help.

NetDoc mentioned the fact that "harassment" exercises are no longer allowed. I think a big problem here starts with the name harassment. I see them as "training in a more realistic way". Another diver here also mentioned how that was noticeable while performing CESA. A mask does not leak when someone is kneeling on the bottom and is told to remove it calmly and place it back again, a mask is dislodged when a diver is swimming and someone kicks or punches it! Regulators can also be pulled out of the mouth, etc. Exercises that more closely match reality should be the standard, not forbidden.

In addition, there should also be exercises that promote confidence and move back the panic threshold. My scuba course started with a free-diving course. While I am not saying it should always be like this, I think there should be exercises that show people that being without a regulator underwater for a few moments is not that difficult, that there is often time to solve problems, etc. We even removed all scuba gear and went swimming from diver to diver asking for air until returning to our spot and putting the gear back on again.

A couple of people here raised their voices against divers removing their regs while on the surface. It should be completely fine to do so! And if the reg (or mask or whatever) is needed, it should be easy to put them back.

 

[2airishuman]

I'm surprised that there aren't more comments about the complete removal of the mask while still in deep water, a serious mistake.

I would also like to observe that this situation is an example of the value of a neck-bungeed secondary. I can't reliably get to it hands-free, but it just takes a finger or two, no need to drop anything.

 

[dmaziuk]

I'm surprised that there aren't more comments about the complete removal of the mask while still in deep water, a serious mistake.

Maybe he was told to never slide his mask on the forehead because then "everyone will rush in to save him" and under the chin it was uncomfortable? Gotta wonder how "mask down" and short-hose secondary would work together...

 

[Storker]

Gotta wonder how "mask down" and short-hose secondary would work together...

IME, it's a major PITA. I don't know if it's due to my thick hood and my DS's warmneck or if it's just me, but there simply isn't enough room between my chin and my chest to accommodate both a bungeed 2nd and a mask. So, I have to slip my mask to the side or to the back if I want to take it off (although I may wear my MOF on board or ashore before splashing, I won't do that while in the water), and that's probably the reason I prefer to keep my mask in place on until I'm aboard or ashore after my dive.

 

[sunnyboy]

We teach horizontal, and don't overweight students as a general rule. As for mirroring behaviour, you cannot mirror everything when teaching. I *must* be able to talk to students on the surface, but I won't let them take the reg out until they have established positive buoyancy that I'm satisfied with. As for taking my mask off, it's the same whether teaching or diving for fun - it comes off only after the fins are off and goes straight into the fin pocket. I don't let students take off the mask until I know they are not going to have any problem - usually on shore.

There's an interesting item others have been posting - instructors sensing or seeing problems at the dive site involving any of the people diving, not just your own class. I call it "having my instructor eyes on". What I find is at any dive site, if I see newer divers, whether in a class or just diving with buddies, I'm always on heightened awareness until I'm assured things are going OK. I think it just comes with the territory of being an instructor as many of my fellow instructors report the same thing at dive sites.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

@sunnyboy thanks for keeping your eyes on us newer divers.