Out of air incident-psychological perspectives.

[poseident]

When we talked later, he told me for the first time that he was prone to unprovoked panic attacks in his daily work. (Nice to know!)

I never could figure out why someone prone to panic would think trying to dive was a good idea. Not to mention why they also fail to disclose their meds for said panic issue on their medical forms.

 

[boulderjohn]

I never could figure out why someone prone to panic would think trying to dive was a good idea. Not to mention why they also fail to disclose their meds for said panic issue on their medical forms.

No meds. Sure, he should have disclosed it, but he left the class ecstatic, fully convinced that remembering to breathe throughout challenging processes was going to change his life.

 

[poseident]

Sorry @john, I was reflecting on my own similar incidents....my comment wasn't clear in that regard. I'm glad your student had a good experience.

 

[KevinNM]

In WWII, the army for the first time in history embedded historians with the troops, and a couple of them engaged in a new technique--interviewing the soldiers immediately after a battle to try to understand what had happened. They learned something shocking--a high percentage had never fired a shot. That led to a series of changes in training (etc.) to try to lessen the degree to which that happened. Your training was very different from the training of a WWII fighter as a result of that.

This is actually BS. Men against Fire is a tissue of lies. The assistant who traveled with him said the surveys that form the basis for the book never happened. This is a case of a pompous ass poisoning science and then society, much like Wakefields lies about vaccines and autism has.

The long-dead hand of S.L.A. Marshall misleads historians

 

[johndiver999]

Interesting story, I'm glad it worked out. The only part that really surprised me - or was difficult to understand- had to do with the boat crew being unhappy with you claiming an emergency (not sure of your exact wording on that).

What does that actually mean? I could see how the crew hates to have people screaming and yelling while positively buoyant on the surface, but on the other hand, if YOU witnessed that the victim was still acting strangely and was exhibiting unexpected behaviors, then it damn sure sounds like an emergency to me. For all you know, the guy could be suffering from a mild stroke or something (in addition to no air).

I would like to understand more about that aspect of the scenario.

 

[Ed Jackson]

Interesting story, I'm glad it worked out. The only part that really surprised me - or was difficult to understand- had to do with the boat crew being unhappy with you claiming an emergency (not sure of your exact wording on that).

What does that actually mean? I could see how the crew hates to have people screaming and yelling while positively buoyant on the surface, but on the other hand, if YOU witnessed that the victim was still acting strangely and was exhibiting unexpected behaviors, then it damn sure sounds like an emergency to me. For all you know, the guy could be suffering from a mild stroke or something (in addition to no air).

I would like to understand more about that aspect of the scenario.

The reason I included that was to underscore how our brain can interpret an event. An emergency is so rare that our brain is conditioned to second guess what is happening.

I have been a practicing psychiatrist for over 20 years and I am still in awe on how our brain deceives us and allows us to see what we expect to see.

 

[DanBMW]

Ed you did good... Thanks for sharing what happened...

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Ed Jackson

Who were you diving with out of West Palm? Crew response was not acceptable. I assume you gave the two waving hands real emergency signal. I also assume you gave the operator feedback.

I still cannot understand how anyone can run out of gas. Regardless. I have never had to donate a regulator in 2,007 dives. I was on a charter in SE Florida on a deep wreck where a member of a group of 3 ran our of gas. I was on the stern, they were on the bow The out of air diver rejected an offered reg and sprinted for the surface. He did not make it and became unresponsive at about 30 ft. The other buddy took him to the surface and he was resuscitated on the boat. The Coast Guard came out and picked him up. Neither the affected diver or one of the buddies ever dived again. The diver who took the affected diver to the surface is a well known videographer in SE Florida.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have never had to donate a regulator in 2,007 dives.

I have only been in the water when a regulator had to be donated once in my life. The diver had somehow started dive #2 with a near empty tank--either she forgot to switch or switched to an empty tank and did not check the gauge. No problem. She reached for her buddies alternate and everything was cool.

 

[Biotech Diver]

Hi @Ed Jackson

Who were you diving with out of West Palm? Crew response was not acceptable. I assume you gave the two waving hands real emergency signal. I also assume you gave the operator feedback.

I still cannot understand how anyone can run out of gas. Regardless. I have never had to donate a regulator in 2,007 dives. I was on a charter in SE Florida on a deep wreck where a member of a group of 3 ran our of gas. I was on the stern, they were on the bow The out of air diver rejected an offered reg and sprinted for the surface. He did not make it and became unresponsive at about 30 ft. The other buddy took him to the surface and he was resuscitated on the boat. The Coast Guard came out and picked him up. Neither the affected diver or one of the buddies ever dived again. The diver who took the affected diver to the surface is a well known videographer in SE Florida.

Which wreck were you diving on? I did a dive on the Lady Luck last year where one diver came back to the boat with 175 psi of air in his tank and the other diver was literally out of air. The boat captain rightly refused to let either diver go on the second dive. I should add that both divers were using aluminum 80s (not that it should matter).

I had to donate my regulator once to my buddy on a 100 foot reef dive because he went through his air so fast and wasn’t paying attention. He was supposed to let me know when he was at 1500 psi but he didn’t let me know till he was at 900. Out of an abundance of caution, I gave him my reg while I switched to the reg on my inflator and we ascended to our safety stop at which time he switched back to his reg. He was diving a 120 HP and I was diving a 100 HP. He ended up with about 300 psi and I ended up with about 1200 when we got back to the boat. Moral of the story is to not assume your dive partner will be monitoring their air like they should be.