Scare in Monterey CA 8/27/06

[darksquid]

We had a scare a few weeks ago in Monterey - the boat had 6 OW students and my buddy and I who were completing our AOW dives. About 6 minutes into our second dive of the day, my buddy and I heard the boat's underwater emergency recall claxon going off. We turned and did a no-safety stop ascent; upon reaching the surface we were told there was an injured diver on the boat and to get aboard ASAP. We got onto the boat quickly and saw one of the OW students, a 14 year old diabetic, spawled out on the engine cover getting emergency O2. He looked very pale and was shivering quite a bit, despite the blankets, towels, and whatnot which were covering him.

As we headed back to the dock, one of the DMs was administering O2 and kept talking to the kid while the other was gathering and writing down info; the boat captain was talking to the coast guard and one of the other instructors was talking to EMS. It was very heartening to see such prompt, competant care given to the injured diver.

I did not witness the incident, but according to his instructor they were doing the reg retrieval skill. The kid tossed his reg and recovered it successfully, but he did not put it back in his mouth -- the instructor saw him starting to panic so he popped the reg into the kid's mouth...but the kid spat it back out. The instructor put it back in, and the kid spat it back out again, then bolted for the surface in ~40 FSW. The instructor had ahold of him, but was unable to stop the ascent and they both surfaced rapidly. The diver never lost consciousness, but was incoherant, slurring, and stumbling on the surface.

At the doc EMS met us (along with his diver-father) and took him off to the hospital. I hear he is fine....but it was quite spooky at the time.

 

[CheddarChick]

Yikes! Too scary. I wonder if it was his first OW in the ocean?

 

[FFMDiver]

is this somewhat deep for a child to be doing ow training?

 

[dive_lover88]

isnt it 40ft that is the standard limits? if it is,then i dont see how it is playing a part in this.

 

[Vicente]

You'll never know why they reacted like that without asking them.

I have seen stuff like this assisting in a class:

Lady about 30 did great all through the class, in the pool, never gave any indications of any problem. In the very first checkout dive in the ocean, kneeling on the sand at 20 feet she went for the surface after a minute. The instructor took her back down one-on-one and she responded "no" to OK sign's and wanted to go back up so they did. On the surface she said the reality of all that ocean above her was too much. Turns out she was just doing the class because of her gung-ho diver boyfriend and had been suppressing all her panic during the class.

 

[www.scubamazing.com]

It's crazy how people will spit the regulator back out. I'm glad I've alway felt so comfortable underwater.

I'm glad you've heard he's doing fine. The way he bolted to the surface, I was worried he wasn't exhaling on the way up. Interesting post though... I hope it has a happy ending for the injured and his family

 

[all4scuba05]

Was it because he didn't depress the purge button? Was he hypoglycemic and incoherant due to his diabetes? Who knows. Not enough info to learn from this yet.

 

[Goddard]

The first time I did a mask clear during my OW certification in Monterey it took a lot more will power to breath from the regulator than it had in the pool. My regulator recoveries were fine but that cold water can be a shock to deal with. I'm actually surprised this doesn't happen more often.

-Rachel