Panic/Hyperventilation during wreck dive (~80 ft)

[Kevrumbo]

You're absolutely correct, hypercapnia and hypoventilation are not synonymous. The former is precipitated by the latter. It's a nitpicky point, but since you're clearly a detail-oriented guy I'm sure you'll understand. You can voluntarily hypoventilate by skip breathing, or there can be a state of hypoventilation like fmerkel described in which gas density, inspiratory and expiratory breathing resistance, hypercapnic ventilatory response and VO2 max all contribute (to one degree or another) to CO2 buildup in divers and the diver cannot ventilate enough to eliminate the CO2. Simon Mitchell's a great guy and a fine physician, but just because he didn't mention hypoventilation in his video doesn't mean it's not (technically speaking) a factor in hypercapnia in diving. Circling back to the original post, it sounds like that's exactly what happened.

Well DDM, just a "detail oriented guy with experience in Adversity": I'm a "Blue Bloater"/CO2 Retainer myself (Asthma under prescription drug control), and have my own harrowing experience to share with @p0werline of Panic at deep depth . . .and none other than Simon Mitchell himself was my treating Hyperbaric Physician for type 1 DCS during a remote liveaboard Bikini Atoll Expedition in 2013.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

I read that post. You're lucky to be here.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[p0werline]

I wanted to thank everyone again for their thoughts and experiences. I do apologize if I used the incorrect terminology. I am very appreciative of everyone's comments, and am glad I found this forum. I will be sure to be an active member moving forward.

At this point, I hate the I experienced this situation but I am also a bit glad. Having this experience behind me will help me during future dives, and I am proud of myself for handling it the way I did. In the future, I will be much more observant of my gear and breathing habits....as I do believe that the regulator had issues (tuning related or just a failure). I will continue to do my research on diving gear, but am still undecided as we only dive maybe 2 weeks out of the year and this was my first issue with rental gear.

Again, thank you for the comments and I hope my experience can help inform others.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Not at all. Sometimes side discussions happen in threads like this but none of it was intended as a slight to you. As many others have pointed out, you did exactly the right thing, and your story may help someone down the line. Thank you for sharing it.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[fmerkel]

Rental gear is a tough decision. Having absolutely no experience with rental gear at all, I think most of the time it's probably OK. OTOH, I think some places use some of the cheapest gear they can get, then service it minimally. Plus, you can never know how it was used or cared for. I've seen small girls dragging their tank across the sand to the water, reg dragging in the sand also. They were too small to carry it so it was a reasonable way to deal with the problem. But now you have a bunch of sand in the 2nd stage.

If you don't like gross....DON'T READ THIS! A buddy rented a reg, dove it, found it acted pretty weird through the dive. Investigating after the dive he found the previous user had thrown up in it. Obviously no one, including the shop had rinsed it out well. Not a story a diver wants to hear.

I choose not to use rental gear. But it's getting harder and harder schlep the stuff on trips. At home it's fine, but I dive most weekends.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

That's just gnarly.

 

[divezonescuba]

What's a little chum in a reg. It probably washes out eventually.

In the Caribbean there are lots of cockroaches.

Found a dead one inside a reg a couple of years ago that was breathing strangely. Too big to go out the purge. So purge your reg a couple of times before you breathe off of it and whatever happens to be in there may come out the mouth piece.