Comfybite and DIR?

[Charlie99]

In thinking this thru further, and speaking to some GUE instructors, it is NOT best to take the reg from the toxing divers mouth. If it's out, then you present your reg to them to breath. But you need to leave in the reg and get the diver to the surface asap, when they stop convulsing.

Thanks for the clarification. That makes more sense to me, but one never knows what other reasons there might have been. For example, I would never have thought about the problem that a comfybite mouthpiece causes in trying to supply gas to a convulsing diver that doesn't have his reg in his mouth.

 

[Charlie99]

If you were both diving the same gas, wouldn't it stand to reason that your gas would tox the diver to the same extent that their gas was?

But what you think is the same gas might not really be the same. Here's an old post by GUE instructor MHK on an oxtox incident during GUE training in Croatia. Supposedly, everyone was diving 30/30 triox, but one of the students hadn't analyzed his tanks.

 

[lamont]

i would think that if you've got someone convulsing at depth who hasn't spit out their reg and you can use that reg to maintain an airway, that would take priority. given a choice between them breathing innapropriate or bad gas and aspirating water, i'll take keeping them on the bad gas. if its an oxtox, the convulsions actually won't kill them, and i'm less worried about them convulsing again than i am about them drowning. i think its a question of priorities and maintaining the airway with something that supports life better than H2O in the lungs would come first in my book...

 

[Mako Mark]

JMO but I reckon that the bridge on the comfort bite mouth piece may reduce the likelyhood that a toxing divers reg would come out as the teeth do not need to be clenched to hold it in as much as a standard mp.

OTOH, I have nearly choked when someone handed me a SeaCure mouthpiece during an S-drill. Talk about the gag reflex, I reckon the thing passed my tonsills.

StSomewhere, one of the main resons that divers tox is switching to the wrong gas, so even if two divers after an identical dive profile have identical gasses and identical O2 exposure, one can tox through this error.

I personally have been fortunate enough to have never seen this in the water.

 

[kidspot]

...You cannot take them up during the convulsion, and if they breathe the same gas at the same depth once they stop convulsing, it makes sense to assume that it will lead to another convulsion. Therefore putting the diver on your own back gas would seem to be a logical thing to do...

I'm curious why begining an immediate ascent (asuming ascent is possible) would be a bad idea? I would think that the expanding gas as you ascend would help prevent water from entering the airway... or is the airway sealed off due to the convulsions?

Thanks, Tim

 

[Charlie99]

... or is the airway sealed off due to the convulsions?

Yes. As with a grand mal epileptic seizure, during an CNS oxygen toxicity seizure the airway will probably be closed and an ascent would probably result in lung barotrauma. One possible result of lung barotrauma is an air bubble into the arterial system (AGE), with the resultant life threatening blocking of blood vessels in the heart or brain.

This is one of the things that was covered in detail in the PADI Rescue Course I took at Pacific Dive.

OTOH, an unconscious but limp diver probably has an open airway unless his chin is against his chest, and will naturally vent out any excess air as you ascend.

 

[kidspot]

Yes. As with a grand mal epileptic seizure, during an CNS oxygen toxicity seizure the airway will probably be closed and an ascent would probably result in lung barotrauma. One possible result of lung barotrauma is an air bubble into the arterial system (AGE), with the resultant life threatening blocking of blood vessels in the heart or brain.

This is one of the things that was covered in detail in the PADI Rescue Course I took at Pacific Dive.

OTOH, an unconscious but limp diver probably has an open airway unless his chin is against his chest, and will naturally vent out any excess air as you ascend.

Thanks Charlie - I just finished PADI Rescue with Pacific yesterday (actually one more dive just for fun he said) and no mention has been made of that yet (dealing with Oxtox that is)

Aloha, Tim

 

[Albion]

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[Albion]

Obviously I haven't taken Rescue yet or I'd probably know the answer to this but....

If you were both diving the same gas, wouldn't it stand to reason that your gas would tox the diver to the same extent that their gas was?

:06:

Possibly but it is assumed that as you are breathing it ok then it is ok for them. There could be a number of reasons such as the filter was blocking and your buddy got his fills pre filter change and yours was after.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thanks Charlie - I just finished PADI Rescue with Pacific yesterday (actually one more dive just for fun he said) and no mention has been made of that yet (dealing with Oxtox that is)

Aloha, Tim

Tim ... most Rescue classes don't talk about how to deal with a toxing diver because it's not (yet) recognized by the major certifying agencies as something that happens at the recreational level.

Hopefully that will change in the not-too-distant future, since nitrox use has really gained a lot of acceptance among recreational divers over the past 3 or 4 years.

This is just another example of where, I believe, GUE is promoting knowledge that other agencies eventually come to recognize as important to their diver education programs.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)