Moral dilemma

[alan_lee]

Hi everyone, I've just started my DM candidature and over the weekend, I was with a group of OW students. One of the students inhaled some water through her nose and panicked a little, and the instructor tasked me to bring her up to the surface. We started ascending at about 12metre (abt 40feet?), and then I heard her power inflating. I quickly shot my hand out and started deflating her BC, while communicating to her not to inflate while ascending, telling her to keep her finger on the deflate button instead. As I was ascending, I was checking the rate of ascent, dumping air as well as keeping my eye on her. At 3m, she power inflated again, except this time, I didn't hear nor see her do it and before I could react, we'd spiralled to the surface (found our that she power inflated after I asked her). Frankly, I was rather peeved at myself for not being more observant.

I was speaking to some friends who are DMs/instructors, and they reckoned that I should preserve myself and not let her take me up, whereas my mentor told me that I could lock myself to her, flare myself out and then grab hold of her deflator. Which means I could still suffer from DCS, depending on how much time it took me to rectify the situation. What do you think is the right thing to do? It's a no-win situation in that while I save my own life, I'm gonna find it hard to live with myself that I couldn't save my diver.

 

[miketsp]

Sounds a little over dramatic.
Working with OW students in shallow depths DCS is not likely to be a problem. At 12m NDL is close to 200 minutes and you are unlikely to be on the bottom all the time. Most likely you'll only be there for short periods with a lot of ascents & descents.
OTOH you have just to be careful of embolism but as long as you don't actually hold your breath...

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I agree... popping up from 10 ft on a dive that is well within the no decompression limits is not ideal or even good but it is not life threatening either as long as your airway is open.

I cannot speak to scuba instruction but with regard to flight instruction there is a balance between being in control and letting the student have enough control to learn - which by default means you are giving the student the opportunity to kill you in the second or two it takes a student to do something really stupid. Staying safe largely means knowing those particular evolutions where you need to be especially on guard and working through what you'd do in a particular scenario in advance.

And the reality is that there is no better way to learn anything than to teach it and the first thing you learn is how little you really know, so take every expereince good and bad and learn from it.

 

[Mr.X]

Very interesting. With new students, and especially panicky ones you learn to grow a third eye. In her head she probably saw the need to power inflate for some reason - this goes back to her prior training in the pool, or wherever. Best to bring this up with the instructor because she needs some re-training in closed water before venturing out again in a live situation. If anything, think where in the chain of instruction did this student fail, or fall?


Also, stuff happens. I conducted major boo-boos when I was training as a DM many, many moons ago. Once I had a male student in the pool try to do a panic ascent to the surface. He wasn't my student, someone else's. I managed to catch him before he ascended (holding his breath) to the surface - by his floppy swimming trunks. They came loose. OOOOps.

 

[Tom Winters]

If you're taking someone up, how did she get her hands on the power inflator after you clamped on to her?? You got lucky and maybe learned that if you're taking control of a panicking diver, you make sure that all they have to do on their end is just breathe and let you do all the decisions. They try something else, you take their hands off whatever they're trying to do.

 

[Mr.X]

If you're taking someone up, how did she get her hands on the power inflator after you clamped on to her?? You got lucky and maybe learned that if you're taking control of a panicking diver, you make sure that all they have to do on their end is just breathe and let you do all the decisions. They try something else, you take their hands off whatever they're trying to do.

Rather than blaming the poster...maybe you should flame the instructor who allowed the "power-inflating" student in the water? Additionally, we do not know if the instructor taught this new DM candidate in-water safety protocols with panicky students. There seems to be gaps in instruction here. A new DM candidate is not an instructor.

X - Instructor Trainer

 

[matts1w]

. A new DM candidate is not an instructor.

Heck, a DM candidate is not a divemaster

I am not so sure what a DM candidate was doing taking a student up from 40 feet anyway- especially after being "asked" by the instructor. This violates standards, period. DM candidates should not be supervising uncertified divers or students for that matter.

 

[Codiak]

Back to the question at hand.
She was panicky before accent, wasn't following procedures E.G. power inflator. which was another sign of stress.

I'm haven't begun instructor training yet and I imagine there are different "rules" per agency
But if she'd been my dive buddy, I'd have given serious consideration to disconnecting the low pressure hose until we were on the surface.

 

[Mr.X]

Back to the question at hand.
She was panicky before accent, wasn't following procedures E.G. power inflator. which was another sign of stress.

I'm haven't begun instructor training yet and I imagine there are different "rules" per agency
But if she'd been my dive buddy, I'd have given serious consideration to disconnecting the low pressure hose until we were on the surface.

How did you get to this opinion based on what the OP said? Mama Mia!

X

 

[String]

When to act, when to stop acting and so on is a judgment call - every situation is different.

However for a simple 12m dive and a rapid ascent from 3m i'd have gone with her. Chance of DCS is absolutely tiny.

If it'd been 40m with 25 mins of stops or something then my view would be different.


(and yes a DMT should never be unsupervised with an unqualified diver)