Diver Panic (Video)

[FinnMom]

The diver was producing quite a cloud of bibbles from the first time we saw her. She may have already been maintaining her depth by swimming forward and waving her arms for some time. When she starts to fight for the surface, she might get to the point where she is breathing harder than a reg can supply gas (so-called overbreathing the reg), that sensation might easily inspire a diver to toss the reg.

You need to watch and stop that hand-waving as soon as it starts; sometimes the diver is actually OK for the depth when horizontal, but poorly trimmed and waving their hands to keep from going nose-down. I've esp seep big floaty fins over floaty wetsuit booties causing this.

I've read that the "climbing an invisible ladder" movement she shows is classic for someone beginning to drown and loose control.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

But maybe at some point in their training. Students benefit from viscerally seeing what can go wrong. May help scare off those who shouldn't be diving.

Agreed for rescue divers, possibly AOW. All divers do need to see this, but after they have learned that if you relax, you are fine. And now that you know that, here is what happens when you don't relax and fall back on your training (assuming ones training has been good. My ow cert was a joke, but what did I know back then?).

 

[dumpsterDiver]

so... she freaked out...exactly why, is not all that interesting.. What is the consensus about how to deal with it?

 

[PeterNBiddle]

so... she freaked out...exactly why, is not all that interesting.. What is the consensus about how to deal with it?

I think you were right on. There are only two places she can get air - a reg and the surface. Your approach goes for both.

The alternative is ignore the reg and guide her up without it - which obviously worked in this case. Provided she never takes a breath of water she ought to be fairly manageable at the surface even if she's passed out.

If she was deeper and had full lungs it would be even sketchier...

 

[Bogtrotter]

Fortunately they were not too deep. I was taught in rescue to get behind a diver, if necessary hold the tank valve so they don't try to turn around, and then attempt to replace the reg- gently purging. But considering she wasn't taking a reg and was in full blown panic ( she even attempted to remove her hood at 50sec) it might just be better to let her go in that particular situation- considering they were not deep and she was in fact positively buoyant.

In terms of avoidance- the fact that her buddy/dm, who perhaps knew she was a nervous diver, should have been visible to her upon ascent. It seems to me the trigger was that she felt left behind, or perhaps felt she was descending. Having her buddy/dm in front of her before ascent would of assured her she was stable and nothing was wrong. Anyway she clearly wasn't ready for the open water in the first place.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

so... she freaked out...exactly why, is not all that interesting.. What is the consensus about how to deal with it?

Start at the beginning on shore or the boat -
How about prevention first? Before she got in the water with her buddy - did perfect form guy dive without talking with her and her experience? Did the group talk her into this dive or is this her first OW dive? You would think someone would have brought up her experience - either her or her buddy.

Now getting ready to splash - did she say anything and was anyone listening or asking questions? She is obviously new and needed someone to help her get ready. So did nothing come up or was it eerily quiet? To me this is a telltale sign - most people who have some skills in the basket are at least excited about trying an OW dive. So who missed the signals.

How long did it take to reach the bottom - anyone watching her and seeing what her behavior was or if she was having issues? My guess is not her buddy - so what did he think his role was in this dive?

So now they are on the bottom - any signals given that anyone is a bit nervous? Any signs noted? If not why not? What is the buddy doing - did he know she was a newbie - if not why not?

Why is he still diving with his hands in front - is he not paying attention? If you watch again he is clearly not - why not?

Ok - so enough blame to go around - she should not have been there - the buddy was next to useless. Who set this buddy pair up and why were they so unprepared?

Ok fine - the crap is hitting the fan and the guy with the Gopro seems to be the only one that at least recognized there was an issue. Too late but still acknowledged the issue - I agree the reg pressed against the mouth and purging seems to be a response.

I have seen panic underwater - there is no reasoning with someone that is in a panic at that point in time. Giving someone a shake to try and snap them out of it is not going to work - but anywhere along the line the signs should have been seen and corrective action should have been taken. IMO this should not have escalated to this point. Prevention would have been better if it could have been seen by the buddy or those in the group...

 

[uncfnp]

I think uncfnp is right

I'm sorry, I just saw this and think it's worth repeating.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Wow! That got my heart racing.
I'll bet she doesn't have anything to do with diving ever again after that.

I believe there a lot of problems with the industry that led up to this incident and probably dozens of similar ones around the world on a regular basis.
It's obvious to me that they were pretty much all fairly new divers.
Many here know that I take issue with how divers are trained today. They try to fast track anybody into believing that diving is easy peasy and anybody can do it.
I remember the days of helping with classes and some of the stuff I saw in regards to who they let through just because it was a customer and they paid money, and they were also a potential future customer to the certifying dive shop.
Some of those people should NOT have passed, no way no how. All they had to do was BARELY show that they could do the skills and that was good enough. A lot of it was really weak in my opinion but I wasn't the instructor so not a lot I could do about it, so I guess DM's just keep their mouths shut.
I've said this before but a little harrassment training goes a very long way to radically increase comfort level in the water. It might seem silly doing hoop jumping drills but they work. Mask removals and replace, air shares, surprise problem solving (what harrassment training trains for). This doesn't need to be rough either, even mild versions help.
And issues with over weighting, which is hard to tell from the vid but looking at the actions of the divers it seems that way to me.

I just think there are so many divers right on the edge of freaking at any given second due to severe lack of training and even more than that, the people they allow to pass. Then the lack of self improvement work in these divers. Once they pass (which many times is a farce) they never work on anything again thinking they'll never have to worry about it.

 

[FiddlerOnTheRoof]

First of all from what I was able to find this was a young inexperienced girl who obviously should NOT have been diving at such depth much less in open ocean. Besides the fact that she was very, very close to drowning I also now wonder if she perhaps ran out of air and panicked? Also at this point she and the DM probably risked DCS in order to save her life. The ascent was quite fast.... And to top it all lets hope she was not holding her breath!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

First of all from what I was able to find this was a young inexperienced girl who obviously should NOT have been diving at such depth much less in open ocean. Besides the fact that she was very, very close to drowning I also now wonder if she perhaps ran out of air and panicked? Also at this point she and the DM probably risked DCS in order to save her life. The ascent was quite fast.... And to top it all lets hope she was not holding her breath!

I didn't see any blood or froth but the video cuts off too so maybe it didn't show yet.
Either way it's kind of gruesome seeing those eyes and and knowing everything she learned (or didn't learn) went right out the window.
I saw absolute refusal to take a reg, but at that point for her to remember her mask off breathing skills???
Man oh man!
Yikes!!