Missed safety stop...told to go back down and complete?

[Thalassamania]

all I can say is, ....You guys must go through a lot of oxygen on your charter boat.

We had a guy blow up from 135 feet straight to the surface very fast about 10 weeks ago. I directed him to descend down to the divers ascending below him. He survived.

Sorry, but that was a singularly dangerous and foolhardy move on your part, good thing that he survived and was not injured because your liability in that circumstance was astronomical. Now, if the diver had a decompression obligation, was asymptomatic, and could be safety returned to the water (e.g., gas supply, etc.) it would have been quite defensible to have followed the Omitted Decompression Protocol that is found in the US Navy Diving Manual.

 

[rickthompson]

Is there a definitive protocol for missing a safety stop (from an authority in the recreational diving community)? People have many valid opinions about this, but I think it's concerning that there no clear cut answer that everyone can agree on for what I would assume is a common occurrence among new divers.

Yes, this diver shouldn't have been on this dive, but she was and this situation happened, so what should we do if any of us sees this happen in the future?

I personally agree that the best place for a panicked diver, or a diver that can potentially loose consciousness, motor control, or possibly go into respiratory distress, is on the boat where they can be properly cared for and immediately transported to higher level care. The last thing you would want is to deal with these potential symptoms of DCS at 15fsw

 

[Thalassamania]

Is there a definitive protocol for missing a safety stop (from an authority in the recreational diving community)? People have many valid opinions about this, but I think it's concerning that there no clear cut answer that everyone can agree on for what I would assume is a common occurrence among new divers.

Yes, this diver shouldn't have been on this dive, but she was and this situation happened, so what should we do if any of us sees this happen in the future?

I personally agree that the best place for a panicked diver, or a diver that can potentially loose consciousness, motor control, or possibly go into respiratory distress, is on the boat where they can be properly cared for and immediately transported to higher level care. The last thing you would want is to deal with these potential symptoms of DCS at 15fsw

There is a definite protocol for missing a safety stop: ignore it.

 

[Superlyte27]

Damn you guys for creating a thread were not once but repeatedly I must agree with THAL.

I know of no protocol for missing a safety stop. There's a great reason for that. Safety stops are optional. I know of MANY protocols for missing a deco stop. They are listed in many AN/DP and Trimix books.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Sorry, but that was a singularly dangerous and foolhardy move on your part, good thing that he survived and was not injured because your liability in that circumstance was astronomical. Now, if the diver had a decompression obligation, was asymptomatic, and could be safety returned to the water (e.g., gas supply, etc.) it would have been quite defensible to have followed the Omitted Decompression Protocol that is found in the US Navy Diving Manual.

I suppose you are probably correct in all this, but can you eloborate on exactly why it is recommended to go back down when a required decompression stop was missed, but it is completely foolhardy to go back down when (for the sake of argument) the ascent was extremely fast and inconsistent with that assumed in generating the no-deco profile limits, yet the elapsed dive time places the dive in the no-deco classification?

All other things being equal.. sufficent gas supply and asymptomatic?

 

[Diver0001]

Is there a definitive protocol for missing a safety stop (from an authority in the recreational diving community)? People have many valid opinions about this, but I think it's concerning that there no clear cut answer that everyone can agree on for what I would assume is a common occurrence among new divers.

I guess you could take the US navy handbook as authoritative on this. They do actually address it and say to keep the diver on the surface and observe them for 1 hour.

R..

 

[rickthompson]

Thank you Thal.

I'm not sure what some of you are talking about though...this was not a deco dive. There was no obligatory deco stop. We are talking about missing a recommended 15ft/3min safety stop for a recreational dive which was deep and getting close but not exceeding NDL. The accent was less than 60ft/min.

And thank you Diver0001 for pointing to a legitimate source. I totally agree.

 

[Thalassamania]

I suppose you are probably correct in all this, but can you eloborate on exactly why it is recommended to go back down when a required decompression stop was missed, but it is completely foolhardy to go back down when (for the sake of argument) the ascent was extremely fast and inconsistent with that assumed in generating the no-deco profile limits, yet the elapsed dive time places the dive in the no-deco classification?

All other things being equal.. sufficent gas supply and asymptomatic?

The main thing here is the depth of descent and the length of stay. For an omitted deco situation there is a fairly complex decision tree that can be simplified to: within 5 minutes of surfacing and when non-symptomatic, return to the water, descend to 30 feet. Make the required 30, 20 and 10 foot stops for 1.5 times as long as initially scheduled. If stops deeper than 30 feet were required, return to the depth of the deepest stop and make stops below 30 feet for the normally scheduled time followed by the new schedule of 1.5 time longer for 30, 20 and 10 feet.

 

[Peter Guy]

There actually is an interesting question whether, IF the diver was following the DSAT RDP NDL protocols, whether the 3 minute at 15 feet is an "optional" stop. Here is the wording from the DSAT RDP:

"A safety stop for 3 minutes at 15ft is required...for any dive to a depth of 100ft or deeper."

Thus, is this NOT a case of an omitted decompression stop?

Now I make no pretense that I am an expert in decompression strategies, but it is my understanding that "the norm" is for a diver to redescend for an omitted decompression stop IF it can be done a.Quickly and b. With plenty of gas and c. Diver is asymptomatic.

I have always found it interesting that the DSAT RDP has these things call "Mandatory Safety Stops" within the concept of "no stop limits."

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Trouble maker!