Out of air emergency at 105 feet

[Gombessa]

It's pretty interesting reading all these responses; I have to say I haven't been surprised yet by who I would have thought would ascend with the OOG diver and who would take back their octo and wave goodbye.

 

[nuts4corals]

You saved someone's life, how does it feel?

Interesting question... I always thought it would feel like a high, but in fact, its sobering. In reality, i did not even think that i saved someones life until the DM himself on our boat ride back to the dock said that if it wasn't for me he'd be dead. It hit me at that moment when i heard him say it that I realized i saved his life. what i can tell you is that when this kind of thing happens the only thing on the mind of a calm and collected person saving you is different scenarios of what to do if. If you are not focused and thinking about the situation than you are really not doing anything to help the both of you to get to the surface. Other than that after the fact... YES, it feels great knowing that we are both ok. Now, I hope I never have to save anyones life ever again. In or out of water.

Interestingly, out of the 8 divers we were with that day only 2 of them knew that the DM was the one in trouble. Even my insta buddy had no clue that it was the DM needing air... He told me that he thought that I was out of air or had mechanical problems. LOL... and my Octo and its hose is bright yellow too. I found this fact shocking. Do people pay attention when they get in the water?

 

[under water]

It's pretty interesting reading all these responses; I have to say I haven't been surprised yet by who I would have thought would ascend with the OOG diver and who would take back their octo and wave goodbye.

I agree.
I know the folks that I would prefer to dive with. Lot's of nice folks for sure on both sides of the fence, but definitely differences that need to be discussed before a dive.

 

[under water]

First order of business, do not turn one victim into two victims. For any dive to 100 feet, a safety stop is highly recommended.

If you screwed up and ran out of air, and you don't want to hang out with me at 15 feet for 3 minutes, then hasta la vista, baby! Go to the surface alone. The emergency is over once you got my regulator in your mouth. I'm going to use my 1,500 PSI to stay at 15 feet for 3 minutes after deep dive.

I see from your profile that your favorite quote is
"I may be wrong, but I'm never in doubt."
I think that may be the case here. I really don't think that you are going to become a 'Victim" if you skip an unrequired 3 minute stop on what basically was a 12 minute dive to 100 feet and back.

But I'm fine with you diving your way.. I just don't think we are a match, and that's OK.

 

[rongoodman]

With the gas to spare, I would have suggested a safety stop to him too, as you did, but if he didn't want to wait, I also have done as you did and accompanied him to the surface with no further question. Had you been facing required decompression, things would be more complicated, and you might have considered returning to make up the missed deco. There are various schemes for doing so, covered in courses on deco diving.

 

[blue steal]

This has been a great thread. As a new scuba diver here, I've learned quite a bit.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

With regards to returning to the water to complete your stop: First off, the likelihood of any problem resulting from skipping the stop is EXTREMELY low. Second, if you happen to be one of the one hundredth of one percent of people who is going to become symptomatic, do you want to do it underwater? In water recompression is a tricky business, and the protocols for doing it (and it's only done in remote areas, where a chamber is not going to be available at all) are complicated. If you are going to develop severe pain or weakness, do you want that to happen underwater, where you are much more difficult to retrieve and assist, or on the boat?

The fact is that the stop wasn't necessary in the first place, and skipping it is extremely unlikely to result in anything untoward, and there is essentially no benefit to returning to the water to complete the omitted stop. Remember -- the Navy tables are more liberal than just about any model being used by a modern computer. The original PADI tables allowed a 60 fpm ascent rate, without a safety stop. We have added enormous conservativism to our ascent procedures, to control the tiny remaining risk of DCS in recreational diving.

Again, I would highly recommend Mark Powell's book for anybody who really wants to understand better what is going on with decompression modeling. And if you want to know about what Doppler monitoring of divers shows about rates of bubbling with various ascents and stops, you can read the papers on the DAN website, or peruse the extensive resources of the Rubicon Research Repository (link in my sig line).

I will stick with the Doctor's Advice here because I have yet to read one of her posts that wasn't based on solid reasoning, scientific research and knowledge. Only a very few people on SB come anywhere close to TSandM so when she posts I for one am happy to read and heed!

 

[Steve_Dives]

Do people pay attention when they get in the water?

So you're new to diving, eh?

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Interesting question... I always thought it would feel like a high, but in fact, its sobering. In reality, i did not even think that i saved someones life until the DM himself on our boat ride back to the dock said that if it wasn't for me he'd be dead. It hit me at that moment when i heard him say it that I realized i saved his life. what i can tell you is that when this kind of thing happens the only thing on the mind of a calm and collected person saving you is different scenarios of what to do if. If you are not focused and thinking about the situation than you are really not doing anything to help the both of you to get to the surface. Other than that after the fact... YES, it feels great knowing that we are both ok. Now, I hope I never have to save anyones life ever again. In or out of water.

Interestingly, out of the 8 divers we were with that day only 2 of them knew that the DM was the one in trouble. Even my insta buddy had no clue that it was the DM needing air... He told me that he thought that I was out of air or had mechanical problems. LOL... and my Octo and its hose is bright yellow too. I found this fact shocking. Do people pay attention when they get in the water?

:worship: Well done and well thought out post incident evaluation. When you are in the middle of the event you need to be focused on processing options and following protocols.

Interesting that people thought you were the one OOG.... Sure illustrates the blind faith some people have in DM's that is really scary! Face it folks.. ANYBODY can stuff up and statistics show that most incidents occur to very new divers who haven't got their skills yet and experienced divers who get complacent!

 

[Doc Harry]

You've got to remember that once you donate your octo and the OOA diver is breathing fine, the emergency is over.

And, if you remember, the donor in this scenario had plenty of gas. There is no need in these situations to rush to the surface or skip safety stops. The emergency is over. Chill out.

Part of the responsibility of the donor is to keep the OOA diver informed of the gas supply. Keep flashing your SPG to the OOA diver to reassure them that there's plenty of gas to go around. The emergency is over. Relax. Take your time. Watch your ascent rate. Do your safety stops.

The emergency is over.