Diver Panic (Video)

[dumpsterDiver]

They want out. You could see her trying to rip off the hood. She was claustrophobic and wanted everything off her face and head and her mouth clear so she could breathe more easily.. Of course minor details like you can't breathe water are ignored.

My only true UW rescue was a women who spit her reg, and refused mine. Actually pretty similar to the video, although she did not ditch her mask.

We see people on here from time to time, who were taught to dive with thick wetsuits, and the instructors teach them to dump air before the ascent. It is incredibly stupid, but they get taught that.

Back when I taught diving, I also taught that my students should stay negative on the ascent and ever so gently kick up. In my opinion, it is safer for the new diver who is doing a blue water ascent with no reference guide, to try to remain negative, rather than be positive and float up.

If the diver is just ever so slightly negative, a gentle kick will get them moving and if they alternate between an occasional kick and then be still and checking their ascent rate, they can control the ascent pretty easily. Of course, as a diver gains experience, they can begin to simply use breath control and very slight positive buoyancy to ascend, but for new divers I prefer to keep them on the negative side of the unstable equilibrium equation.

 

[boulderjohn]

Equipment rejection, including ditching the mask and the regulator, is a classic reaction to panic. That is the reason for the silly misunderstanding that placing the mask on the forehead is a sign of panic. It isn't. However, in a panic the diver might shove the mask off and have it askew on the forehead, and that--along with other signs--is very much a sign of panic.

 

[meatsim]

Wow that is terrifying. Why not talk about what should have been done?

If I were the guy filming, I would have put one hand behind her head, the other would be holding the regulator to her lips and I would be purging the crap out of it. She would have been unable to move her mouth away from the air source, regardless of whether she wanted to or not.

Anyone else do something different?

I'm not experienced enough to say what should or shouldn't have been done however could there be issues if you purged a regulator into someones mouth who was panicking under water? It could result in air in their lungs or stomach that they might be breathed out if you need to bring them to the surface quickly.

My thoughts are that on a non-decompression dive offering the reg like they did would allow the panicked diver to take it and get them calm enough to take them to the surface at a normal rate, if not then you can emergency accent like they did.

If you purge air into them but they remain panicked there is an added risk of an embolism where an emergency accent from 50ft should otherwise be doable in a situation like this

 

[CuzzA]

Having never panicked anytime in my life I obviously can't relate... It's just odd to see that behavior. I guess they associate the reg with diving and when they don't want to be diving anymore they think they need to get rid of it?

 

[CuzzA]

I'm not experienced enough to say what should or shouldn't have been done however could there be issues if you purged a regulator into someones mouth who was panicking under water? It could result in air in their lungs or stomach that they might be breathed out if you need to bring them to the surface quickly.

My thoughts are that on a non-decompression dive offering the reg like they did would allow the panicked diver to take it and get them calm enough to take them to the surface at a normal rate, if not then you can emergency accent like they did.

If you purge air into them but they remain panicked there is an added risk of an embolism where an emergency accent from 50ft should otherwise be doable in a situation like this

I don't think in this case she was ever going to accept the reg. Keeping air on her mouth would probably be the right thing to do because once she aspirates water that situation would have been much worse. But, I've never experienced diving with someone who's panicking like that, so may be that's wrong.

 

[uncfnp]

I found what looks like the original post on youtube with some Q&A about the event at...

Ok, when I posted the link it brings up the video not the page. Will try again. This is a link to the page of the person that posted the video ...

Steve Gerber

For me it comes up as the second video on the list. Not too much additional info though. Gives location if correct, Tourist and that possibly her buddy is the dad. Don't know accurracy.

 

[tsuyoshi]

Scary and thank god immediate outcome was not fatal.

I'm wondering whether the good samaritan rule applies to this kind of situation.

 

[The Laconic]

That was textbook panic. Amazing. They should show that in rescue classes.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Actually, it's the automatic evolutionary emotions like Stress, Fear and worst of all -Panic- that reduces situational awareness and causes perceptual narrowing to fixate only on the most basic instincts in an emergency. You have to control these primal emotions and turn to your conscious mind which is uniquely capable of deliberate & creative problem solving. You don't want anything else to add or compound a Panic situation like narcosis or low viz/silt-out for instance if you can help it as well.

While automatic emotions can quickly focus on the most immediate & vital variables like the Need to Breath Instinct for example, the learned & rational brain is able to expand the list of possibilities to resolve the situation and to engage the most reasonable action.

Obvious example: Fear of drowning and resulting Panic in an Out-of-Air Scuba contingency (or in this case a perceived inability to arrest an uncontrolled descent and/or start a normal ascent) compels to conserve one's breath -or "hold" your breath- and make for the surface as quickly as possible. But proper training dictates that even in this dire emergency to never hold your breath and instead perform a CESA --that is to rationally overcome the panic, and utilize the learned skill/technique that will give you the best chance of a viable outcome. Clearly in this case, discarding the mask & reg and rejecting an offered octopus reg with a rapid ascent to surface is not the commonly taught & learned skill/technique. (As an aside, a CO2 hit/sudden Hypercapnia could have elicited the Panic, caused by extreme physical exertion trying to ascend, and over-breathing/inefficient-breathing the regulator causing her to subsequently reject it as well. . .)

Know and be aware the risks on pre-dive, control fear & anxiety during the dive, but also use it to keep yourself and your buddy sharp & alert within your training, experience & comfort level. . .

 

[andrei_c]

I watched the movie for a couples of times and I think uncfnp is right: she is not descending, but due to the fact that all the others are going up, she got stressed, than scared and in the end panicked. The whole stuff. As The Laconic said, is “a textbook panic”. But looking at her and at some of the other divers, I’m thinking this is somehow the result of the particular way the trainings are conducted. And I’ll explain myself. It was happening to me and I saw it in many other countries/dive centers etc. During the OW courses most of the time the instructor teaches the students to descent to the bottom, knelling over there, exercise the skills with the knees “stuck in the sand”. Even when they don’t have to do any exercise, just to “go around” , the technique is the same: down to the bottom, knelling (more or less), adjust the buoyancy and start swimming. Maybe that’s way the poor students (or later new certified OW) are absolutely terrified if they have to descend somewhere the bottom is hundreds of meters deep. They are used to stop their descent by the bottom. When they have to ascend, sometimes the “procedure” is similar: using the bottom to push on it. Or, instead of dumping exactly as much air as need it when ascending, terrified by the idea of “popping up as a champagne bottle’s cork”, the students purge completely the BCDs and then struggle like hell to go up. In my opinion the training should be more focused on mastering the buoyancy. Learning to perform all the skills in a neutral position and not by knelling on the bottom is really useful. If somebody kick your mask or regulator off, you should be able to solve the issue immediately, with calm and not descending first to the bottom for knelling.

Just some thoughts.