Saved my DM at 80ft. in Palau

[Santa]

well done. Cool story.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Hi, thanks for sharing your experience.

Edit: Glad to here everything turned out ok.

 

[mars2u]

Thanks Santa and Submariner....as well as everyone else for the compliments. I hope all your O-rings are safe and secure

 

[tzeyap]

Hello!
I am new to the Board and Diving. I would like to know how this could have been prevented? During my training we were taught to examine the O-ring. But I guess I either didn't pay close enough attention or I wasn't informed properly. Would there be any signs that it should be replaced? Before the dive, when the diver checked his tank and it looked ok then, then what would cause this to happen?
On my 9th dive, I watched a diver bolt from about 50 feet to the surface. She had logged over 50 dives and she claimed that her BC infalted on its own. We could hear her screaming though her regulator on her way up. The dive leader waited to make sure she was ok at the surface and then continued with us. They repaired a valve that had apparently gotten stuck and she dove again after our surface interval. I really want to learn as much as possible to prevent any accidents, although I know you always can't. The one thing I belive is that you must stay calm, STOP, THINK, ACT/REACT. Thank you for your story.
Good job!

Scoobado,

A faulty power inflator causing leaking air into the BC is not uncommon. Most of the time it is a slow leak and the indication is when you find you have to keep dumping air.

In this situation, simply disconnect the air feed and trim bouyancy before ascending. To attempt an ascent with an inflated BCD can be dangerous. This has happened to me and I continued on my dive after after disconnecting the air feed. The power inflator is just a device for adding air to the bc. If one is up to it ,it is possible to orally add air after disconnecting the feed hose.

 

[Quero]

Good points Dr. Bill. I haven't seen a first stage blow either. I just think that keeping a level head is what most people forget to do. I think we both did it by the book. The thing I realized later was how I really didn't think about: "What do we do next?". All the training just kicked in.
The thing that bugged me was why he didn't grab the reg in the first place....seems he thought that he blew an O-ring from his console and that's why he wasn't that concerned. He also ASSUMED that was the case since it had happened to him before.
We drank early in the evening so we were fine the next day.

What a great story, mars2u, and kudos for your quick response to what could have become a serious incident.

I'm not surprised that the DM wasn't aware that he had a problem. He probably couldn't see the bubbles and may not have known where the noise was coming from. I had an o-ring failure one time, and it was indeed noisy, but I seriously didn't even imagine that it was me who was in trouble until somebody started rushing over to offer me an alternate air source. I had been looking all around to try to figure out what was generating so much noise! I was still breathing fine until the tank was nearly empty. By the time I got the alternate in my hand, I could feel the cold from the rapidly depressurizing cylinder penetrating my BCD and wetsuit, so that was how I realized what exactly was going on. I believe it was very dramatic for everybody but me. Once back on the boat, all the other divers were concerned for my well-being, but I was perfectly calm. As you said, the training kicked in, and besides, I honestly think it was more frightening to witness it than it was to experience it. Also it all happened so fast--quicker even than the time it takes to tell the story.