Panicked diver- what to do...

[gkwalt]

1) When one buddy in the group needs to surface....all need to surface
2) Planning to buddy breathe is not advisable...buddy breathing is not taught in many scuba programs for a good reason. Buddy breathing is an emergency procedure at best.
3) A safety stop is highly recommended, not required. Hopefully your dive profile was as such that you had no obligations and you could have blown the safety stop.
4) When diving with a new buddy, it is best practice to check their air consumption frequently. There is no reason that he should have gotten to 300 psi without someone knowing.
5) Dive planning includes discussion of when to turn the dive. Pre dive communication is vital, especially with "adopted buddies".

Out of air situations should NEVER occur. Sure there are situations like the Rouse's on the U-869, but if your are cruising a wreck as a rec diver OOA is not an option.

A few extra minutes underwater is not worth dieing for.

 

[xjeslesx]

I'm glad things worked out alright for all of you. In response to handing off your pony bottle, I would say no. When the diver signals 300lbs I would have instantly handed the diver my octo and held onto his bc for the remainder of the dive. At that point we would have made a direct ascent (not swam for anchor line). I would much rather inflate my smb and blow my whistle to get the boats attention than chance running out of air at depth.
In regards to the situation of a large diver panicing and dragging you to the surface. I would grab the diver anyway I could (by bc, arms, leg). Next I would dump the air out of my bc, making myself negatively buoyant and allowing me to slow are ascent. If possible I would dump his/her bc as well.

If you have air to breath there is no reason to allow an uncontrolled acent, that is just asking for injury.

Hope this helps if you ever experience a similar situation (hopefully you do not).

 

[Limoges Diver]

Only if I know the person with whom I am diving is capable of carrying out a competent air-sharing ascent do I go deeper. The behavior of this diver just reinforces that decision for me.

For us nouveau divers, could you tell us what you think is the correct procedure? Any different than how they taught us in out O.W. course?

 

[TSandM]

I know this question was an old one now, but I thought I'd go ahead and answer it.

Doing a controlled ascent while sharing gas is taught in OW, but it can be surprisingly difficult to do in practice. The task-loading involved in sharing gas can interfere with buoyancy control, especially in a drysuit, and it gets worse as the divers get shallow. The classes I have taken have shown me that, unless this skill is practiced until it's solid, it's not unusual for people to lose control and ascend at an undesirable rate, or even, unless securely attached, end up with differing ascent rates and get separated. We had a death in Puget Sound related to an air-share that was initiated fine, but the OOA diver either panicked and rejected the regulator in the shallows, or lost control -- she embolized and died.

So the answer is that it wasn't specific procedures I was talking about, but rather recent experience and practice to make sure the skill to do it was there.

 

[bkotheimer]

Having shared air on 2 ascents, one of them from 125', I know that one thought that can pop up in the recipient's head is that the donor's air is not going to be sufficient and is also going to run out before reaching the surface. This alone can lead to panic and tempt the OOA diver to unsafely hasten the ascent.

 

[black_sea]

I was a dm assisting an instructor. I was buddied up with one of the OW aspiring students. When she ran low on air, in 5 minutes, unexpectedly, 20 mins into the dive, she "ran" to the instructor, forgetting to communicate with me.

People panic, people don't communicate, and sometimes there is plain nothing you can do. As they say in ER training, "people die and you can't save them all".

What helps me handle diver panic? Checking their logbooks, making sure there are previous dives and listed air consumption.

Any doubts, I demand a check dive. Buddy up with questionable diver. Whenever someone is low on air, at least twice as low as low as the rest of the group, I split the buddy doubles, buddy up with the diver in trouble, and ask my buddy to take their biddy.
Of course, I brief people on the surface- if one of you is low on air, they will buddy up with me, this is the sign language we use.

I don't have any easy solutions to the panicked diver situation. But I try not to take people deep before I have tried them out.

 

[elmer fudd]

The biggest issues I see here are the lack of communication and buddy separation. First off, ending up at 300 psi just shouldn't happen and on that odd dive that it does happen it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. This is an insta-buddy issue however. You can't always ensure that a complete stranger will be competent or responsible. After the problem became clear however, how did you get separated? It's one thing if you're in the middle of a dive and taking pictures, hunting or just engrossed in what you're doing, but to get separated once a real problem becomes apparent indicates you're doing something wrong. You can talk about handing off ponies or long hoses, but you can't do either one if you're not there.

In an emergency, unless the situation demands that one diver lead and one follow, you really should be side by side or face to face so that you don't get separated or overlook something life threatening.

 

[Jan Kruger]

A few years ago we did a ' Pinnacles ' dive in Mozambeque to 45 metres ( 149 ' ) and for some reason i used my air very quickly ( probably nerves ) - we dove with a group we didn't know.
My dive buddy and friend at the time was also a DM and when i signalled that i was low on air at depth, he immediately started sharing air with me even though i still had some air left - we informed the dive leader and ascended together without any problems. At that stage i was still diving with a 12 litre steel cylindre but now use the 15 litre which gives me the extra time i need.

I agree that getting air shared immediately gives you some comfort as well as calms you down.The ascend was good since we were used to each other's diving ability.

I also agree that taking charge of the situation immediately by escorting the diver that's low on air to the surface might save the day for him/her.

 

[ScubaCruiser54]

When I am diving with anyone, but especially with an unknown diver, I am a pain in the butt about asking for air checks. I know each diver is responsible for their own diving, but I don't want to have someone hurt by a diving accident... not them or me.

When the divers were at the anchor line for the first diver's ascent, everyone should have checked each others air remaining. If the unknown diver was not relatively closely on track with the two 1500PSI divers, he should have ascended.

After that, it became a compounding of issues. Offering the octopus was the correct first response once he went OOA. However, if someone is at 300 PSI, there is a certain risk they will run OOA in less than a few breaths at any reasonable depth. When he was at 300 PSI, I would have started an ascent to shallow up the dive and air requirement. If you were at a 15 foot safety stop when he ran out, it would have been a lot less stressful to use your octo.

Also, you don't have to stay at depth to manuever unless there is a strong surface current. Plus, getting rescued at the surface is a lot easier than dealing with OOA accidents and bolting divers. If I were 15 miles off shore and diving in a current, I would be carrying a safety sausage as well.

Sounds like a real near miss and you all survived. Another reason to dive with a know buddy....

 

[Cruisin Home]

1) I think the first mistake was the Dive Plan. To have a buddy pair with different gas mix and they plan to stay for different bottom times seems like poor planning. Begging for trouble.
2) Now the guy has a problem early on and doesnt dive to plan. Should be first sign of trouble.
3) Twos company, three's a crowd. Dont like the odd man joining your twosome for another lap. Would have been a good time to share how much air you all had left.
4) ok the guy now signals you with 300lbs. time for immediate air assistance. you have to make the call Pony or octopus, lots has to go into that decision such as familiarity, ease, time, etc. But at 100ft with 300lbs called for immediate action. Maybe would have saved panic, maybe not.
5) I dive far out at sea and I know what you mean about conditions. anchor line ascent is the best if you can. lets you have it nice and controlled. Again your call. but dont think I would have expected him to make anchor on 300lbs.
6) as for the panic ascent, maybe not too much for your buddy to do except dump his BC. If possible climb the other guy and try and reach his cump valve. Keep blowing air out your mouth and hope for the best.

PS) Choose your dive partners very carefully when doing deep offshore diving. Why didnt he have a Pony? I dont dive deep offshore anymore without one, and rather dive by myself than with someone else ill equipped and ill prepared. He should have aborted the dive early on. I hate divers that dont have the IQ to abort. I have thousands of dives yet dont think twice about aborting a dive if things go off plan, or I have gear malfunction, or buddy has same.

Just my thoughts. thanks for listening to the crticism. I can tell you are going to be a really good diver because you are being critical and opening your self up by POSTing here.
"Experience is what you get when you dont get what you want"!!! You just got a boat-load of experience, learn from it and make better choices going forward (particularly who you dive with).