Map51, Hello I was on the dive with you. I brought my unconscious Uncle up from 90'... are actual ascent time was 42 seconds from 90'.
First my Uncle is back in PA and doing good. After my Uncle came back to life I flew home the next day as planned while he stayed in the hospital to recover.
Also, I would like to know if you know what happened with the first diver that was rescued? I heard while we were at the hospital they couldn't get a heart beat? Do you know if he lived? I know my Uncle and the other diver both lived and should be able to dive again because they had rooms next to each other.
Also, I suspected CO after I got my head around the situation and talked to DAN. Dive Palancar assured me they would test the tanks... however, they have not shared the results. I've asked DAN to try and follow-up.
Below is the recap from my first hand experience:
This message is so I can share with you what happened and hopefully can prevent further dive injuries.
I've done about 500 dives during the last 3 years of which I've done close to 200 in the past 12 months and I have never, ever seen anything like this. My dive buddy (injured diver three in the info below) is a Dive Master since 1975 and dives more than I do.
Location: Cozumel, MX.
Duration: 7-10 days of diving 2 3 dives per day
Dive Injury Location: Palancar Reef @ Horse Shoe (between Palancar Caves and Palancar Gardens)
Dive Shop: Dive Palancar, onsite with Alegro Resort and Occidental Grand Hotel
Rescue Dive Shop for Injured diver 1: Dive Palancar, onsite with Alegro Resourts
Rescue Dive Shop for Injured divers 2 and 3: Dressel Divers, onsite with the Iberostar Cozumel Resort.
Dive Gas: All 3 divers were using a standard Air tank.
Incident: 3 of 7 divers injured during descent on a multi-level dive to 90
Date: Thursday, Feb 11, 2009 about 2:38PM.
Summary of Injury:
Diver 1: Blacked out during descent at about 25 feet, 2 minutes into descent.
Diver 2: Blacked out during continuation of descent to first dive level at about 60 feet, 12 minutes into descent / dive.
Diver 3: Blacked out at first dive level 75 feet 13 minutes into descent / dive.
Condition of Injured divers:
Diver 1: Unknown
Diver 2: Released from Hospital (Friday Feb 12th)
Diver 3: Released from Hospital (Saturday Feb 13th), still suffering minor joint pains
Location of Treatment:
Diver 1: Unknown
Diver 2: Cozumel Internal Clinic, Contact: 987-872-23-87
Diver 3: Initially Treated By Dr. Pascual Piccolo with Meditor:, before stabilizing and being transferred to the Cozumel Internal Clinic.
Details:
First diver blacked out about 2 minutes into the descent, and although I didn't see anything other than him surface and the boat pick him up from about 45' under water (while the descent was paused). I have heard from the dive-talk that he was being treated for a heart attach, and just blacked out during his decent.
Second diver blacked out at about 12 minutes into the dive around 60', I didn't realize what had happened, and frankly I though it was a buoyancy issue because it looked like his wife was trying to pull him down. In talking to him he got light headed, and the last thing he was able to do was inflate his BC.
Third diver blacked out at about 75'. This was my dive buddy and uncle so I witnessed almost the entire event, but it was limited because I was trying to let the dive master know about the second diver and was about 10 seconds away from buddy when he blacked out, and starting taking in water, . By the time I goto my buddy, jammed my octopus into his mouth and got buoyancy under control we were down to 90' before I was able to start the ascent. I noticed he was not breathing and started free flowing his air at which time his eyes blinked for 1 happy second before rolling back and going out. I began an emergency ascent with my buddy in tow from 90' and he started foaming (probable from trapped air in his lungs). Time of ascent was 42 seconds.
Once on the surface the second diver was convulsing, breathing, but non responsive to the situation. Third diver was out, but did have a pulse and seemed to take shallow breath as I used the octopus to force short bursts of air into his lungs every few seconds, until we confirmed he was taking a shallow breath... the best we could do considering we were floating in the ocean.
Next no boat. The boat had taken the first injured diver.
It took at least 10 minutes to secure a rescue boat by using every possible option available (emergency whistles, horns, distressed diver signal, yelling, etc..), during this time the third diver (my buddy) began convulsing but was non responsive to the situation, however I could tell he was now breathing for sure on his own, but it didn't last. And by the time we got him onto the boat I was sure he was dead. However, you don't give up and we began oxygen treatment and within a few minutes he was breathing and convulsing again. At about 20 minutes into the boat ride we ran low on oxygen and additional oxygen was obtained from another dive boat on the water, with the new oxygen we continued full speed ahead to the dock at which time my diver seemed to stabilize and come back to life. Opened his eyes, blinked. I asked him if he knew who I was and he did. I then told him had blacked out at 75' and we had done an emergency ascent and were about 5 minutes from the ambulance.
As we had pulled into dock (in our rescue boat with Dressel Divers at the Iberostar) Dressell had paramedics and a doctor along with two ambulances. During the 30 minute boat ride second diver had stabilized. The 3rd diver (my uncle) was the immediate concern, and was quickly checked out by the doctor who instructed the paramedics to get him into the hospital because his lungs were full of water.
Anyway the story ends well for the 2nd and 3rd diver, who as noted above were both released from hospital. The status of the 1st injured diver is not confirmed.
Misc Notes:
Dive Palancar assured me they were going to test the air in the tanks. When I followed up the next day with the dive shop they avoided the issue. Ive asked DAN to get this info in the argument of research. Im sure we had Carbon Monoxide loaded tanks. It is the only way I think you can have bad air and not know it.
I have done some research and I have found only one company that makes a portable CO tester specifically for divers.
Manufacture: Nuvair
Model: Pro CO Analyzer, BC flow adaptor sold separately)
Cost: $400
Website: cant' post the link because of site rules so I'll try to just do this www nuvair com
Carbon Monoxide Analyzer - Pro CO Alarm
We saw 3 other injured divers receive medical treatment during the week with Dive Palancar.
I myself felt fine immediately following the Rapid / Emergency Ascent, and never sought medical treatment in Cozumel, although the Doctor asked me several times how I was doing (somewhat amazed I felt fine).
Since my Uncle had stabilized and was in good care I went ahead and flew home about 20 hours following the rapid ascent. I did start to get DCS symptoms in flight that were very mild (wasnt a huge concerned because Ive had some minor DCS symptoms after long periods of diving, that have always gone away in a few days
and was in denial of the mild symptoms until they escalated at day 6 to moderate sharp muscle and joint pain along with the tingles in my arms and legs, and just to make sure I was a mess I got a nice does of vertigo. I was treated quickly by some great doctors in Scottsdale AZ and Im hopeful I will make a full recovery over the next few weeks. I will post my treatment under another topic since it was delayed DCS treatment it is worth talking about and the way the hyperbaric treatments were administered.
I am looking for a unit that is easy to use and will read even very low concentrations, e.g., the difference between 0ppm and 1ppm. 
