Pain and Panic

[Dangerous Brian]

Hi all, I hope this is the right place for writing this. I thought I would share this incident with you. Last week I went diving in Stoney Cove UK. The water was 12 deg and vis was about 5 mts. This was my 50th dive and I wanted to close the season before it got to cold out of the water. Me and my buddy done our checks and surface swam to the bouy, which is attached to the stangarth, a tug. I have always had trouble with my ears so we took a really slow descent . After equalising lots of times and pushing slightly more than I should have to equalise, my ear squeeked a bit and then was OK. At 23 Mts all was ok and we swam around the tug then followed the anchor chain, my ears were ok. We found the jeep and swam back to the stangarth. We then found the Mini car. This is where it started going wrong. I thought there was only one mini in the lake but there was two. One that was in about 19 mts and rising. The other at 19mts and descending. I thought I was at the 19 and descending one! (COMPASS!!!) Well, after about another 15 mts swim I heard my computer beeping, I was ascending quite fast, I looked at my buddy and he came towards me to stop me going up even more . I had a BC on and Dry suit. Both had some air in. I vented my dry suit but I was still going up to fast. I could not clear my ears fast enough and the pain felt like a hot nail in my left ear. I pushed the button on my hub to dump all the air in there. This is when Pain and Panic clouded my actions. I pushed the wrong one. I went up faster, the pain was so great that I screamed out. This all happened in about 5 mts. My buddy was looking at me and by now had stopped me going up. We slowly went back down till I had equalised my ear again. Then we aborted the dive. I could hear but not very well. My ear was popping and squeaking for ages. I have now booked an appointment at the doctors! I would like to make these points. I am stupid for diving with even slightly blocked ears. I may have damaged my ear for good. I am still getting slight pain now and again. I will not dive until I have 100% clearance from my doctor. This has re-enforced the pro’s for diving with a buddy, Everyone says at some time you will get a bad dive, this was mine. I am still thinking of it! Pain and Panic is 100 time more dangerous U/W.

 

[miketsp]

I hope your ear gets better. These things normally heal up given time so don't expect the worst.

On the dumping issue. That's one of the reasons I never use my corrugated hose dump, I only dump using the shoulder dump or the rear hip dump because in an emergency it's too easy to push the wrong button. Plus the bigger dump valves dump much faster. I don't even use the dump knobs. I find the dump valve and pull the cord directly.

 

[String]

Sounds like a baratrauma - possibly perforated eardrum so a visit to the doctors is obviously the right idea.

As for the corrugated hose comment - i dont think he has one - he mentioned a "Hub". The cons of those are for a different thread but it doesnt have one. The dump is on the lower left hand side somewhere, about 5cm from the inflate one in the same place. Im not even sure if the thing has normal pull dumps on the lower or shoulders.

There is an argument for using only the drysuit for buoyancy as it makes managing air sources easier (but theres also an argument against that). It maybe worth playing with different methods once diving again to see which you prefer.

It maybe worth rechecking weighting too as overweight will make managment of expanding air in either cell more difficult on ascent.

 

[Tollie]

I’m glad you are going to take care of business and that you and your buddy worked thru this as well as you did.

Just a couple of points.

It sounds as if you had a reverse block as the pain occurred during the rapid ascent. This is relatively unusual as most ear problems occur on the decent. One cause of reverse blocks is the use of medication that wears off during the dive. Were you using a decongestant?

Your description points up the importance of team skills and a solid buddy. It sounds as if your buddy did a good job.

The typical recommendation for ascent with a reverse block is to stay down as long as your air holds out working slowly to break the block and then ascend slowly. I believe that this is what you did but I suppose in this case the damage had been down during the ascent.

I have had concerns about the HUB since it was released. I guess that if you chose to continue diving with it you will need more drill and practice, including OOA drills.

I’m very glad you were not further injured and hope you get back in the water after your cleared. There are so many things that you could have done to make the situation worse… but you held it together in an extreme situation. I hope you feel good about your response.

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
As for the corrugated hose comment - i dont think he has one - he mentioned a "Hub".
..snip..

Yes, you're right, rereading he mentioned "hub". I didn't pick up that he meant "HUB" or "Hub".
Must be some sort of mental block that a dry-suit diver would be diving with a "HUB".
Nuff said.

 

[El Orans]

Get well soon.

 

[String]

Must be some sort of mental block that a dry-suit diver would be diving with a "HUB".
Nuff said.

Well i have a mental block thinking anyone would dive with one (but thats been done to death here!). In the last few months ive had to dive with 2 of them. One a standard open water dive and i remember thinking "oh good, the octopus is stuffed in a pocket out of the way" and "jesus this thing is heavy" when lifting it onto the RIB.
The second one was more disturbing in that i was acting as "naughty student" to someone practicing for the practical instructor exam and his kit consisted of one.

That aside i dont think it in any way contributed to the incident here. Practice and familiarity with kit should be for all kit not just ones like this so cant blame the "wrong button" on the unit itself.

 

[Hammerhead]

Glad to hear you're got up safely. I had a similar (and similarly unpleasant) experience about 5 years ago, dived whilst stuffed up & paid with pain on the ascent. Anyway, it cleared leaving no ill effects, hope yours does the same.

Second the comments on your buddy - looks like you both did good in challenging circumstances.

Regarding the HUB, I finally managed to tempt my favourite buddy into dumping his & taking the Halcyon / Apeks route by lending him my new set-up to play with. The dark side has its' merits...

Take care and let us know how it all pans out.

Cheers.

 

[Dangerous Brian]

Hi all , and thanks for the comments and well wishes. When I mentioned HUB this is what I meant. It is a MORHOS PRO by Mares. It has two manual dumps as well. sorry for confusion. I have 15 ltr steel tank with apex atx200 and atx40 octopus. neoprene dry suit. Most times I have near perfect buoyancy, and just use my suit, only using my BC on the surface. I have been thinking over the day and this is what I think added to the complications. I was looking forward to the dive the night before and was getting all my stuff ready. We had to leave at 4am in the morning to get a place in the lower car park. The site opens at 7am and we are quite a way away. Late night, Long drive, early dive, blocked ear. Not good. I also think that being excited about a dive (even in a lake!) can add to the 'not being focused' thing. I don't think you can practice enough diving and playing out situations enough. I did not even think of using my shoulder dump! (show that pain can stop you thinking straight). Normally my suit is all I need u/w and BC to float once finished diving. I think I must have left air in the BC once down and not sorted out my buoyancy correctly. The last dive I did was on Phi Phi Island in Thailand on April 4th and my ear hurt then. I wanted to give ear a rest, hence the time laps till next dive. I thought it would have got better by now. I will have to get a referral from my GP to see a specialist. Anyway I will let you know how I got on.

 

[String]

OK, my fault for confusion, i saw the word "hub" and assumed you meant a mares hub. Youve identified most probably causes yourself in the last post so theres not much point re-stating them. The only other one maybe the long lay off not diving (April until october) and even then it was easy warm water stuff. Maybe a 23m dive in stoney straight away when not having dived for a while and back in a drysuit wasnt the wisest idea but hindsight is a wonderful thing...

You can try to get a referral from a GP or alternatively look up one of the UK sport diving medical referees on the BSAC site (you dont need to be a member just they keep a copy of the list online) and try to contact them directly. Personally id ignore any medical opinion about diving if it doesnt come from a proper diving doctor trained in hyperbaric medicine.