Survived a Panic Attack at 100 feet - lessons learned

[TSandM]

I just read this again, and it brought back memories of another learning situation for me. I was in a class, diving as part of a team of three. We were on a site I didn't know, but one of the other divers did. He described it and told us what he thought the best course was to see it. He was not going to lead the dive, though. We made a plan, and got in the water, to discover some very strong current making it VERY difficult to execute the dive as planned. Rather than change the plan on the fly, we kept trying to execute it. I was on the bottom, trying to pull and glide against the current, because I couldn't even kick against it very well. This probably went on for ten minutes, while the leader tried to follow the plan, which had proven to be faulty, and the two of us tried to follow the leader, because she was leading. Dumb! Eventually, we veered off and found the edge of the wall, and discovered the current was far less at depth.

The lesson I learned from this is that "Plan your dive and dive your plan" is a great mantra, but "Plan your dive with some contingency plans, and be prepared to adapt when water conditions don't permit executing the original plan, AND have a way to discuss this (we carry wet notes for just this kind of reason)" is much smarter.

 

[Hockeynut]

The lesson I learned from this is that "Plan your dive and dive your plan" is a great mantra, but "Plan your dive with some contingency plans, and be prepared to adapt when water conditions don't permit executing the original plan, AND have a way to discuss this (we carry wet notes for just this kind of reason)" is much smarter.

Yours just isn't as catchy though!



But I like it.

 

[fishdelasol]

I had the exact same experience in Hawaii this past April. Being on a wreck with a current, having confusion about what the heck is going on, feeling like the more you breath-the less air you get, and that you will die if you don't bolt to the surface immediately. I am truly glad that you are ok. I am really glad you shared this story, too. Thanks.

 

[hobodiver]

I looked up at my buddy who was still very close above me (but wasn't fully aware of what was going on) and knew that only thing that would help me get through this was to make human contact immediately! I grabbed his fin, pulled him down to my level, took a hold of his BC shoulder straps and just focused on looking him square in the eyes. That simple feeling of knowing there was somebody else there and making contact with them worked like a magic charm and within about 10 seconds, I had my breathing under control and I knew everything was going to be OK. My buddy finally figured out something was wrong after he saw that my eyeballs we about as big as silver dollars!

I find this part interesting, as I recently attended a Rescue class. One of the things that was stressed in an OOA situation (where your buddy is out of air) was to physically grab your buddy's BC, and to give him your Octo, and then to maintain eye contact with him (I'm abbreviating the procedure a bit for simplicity). The idea was that with eye contact, and by exerting control, the OOA diver will calm down.

 

[spt29970]

I recently had a similar episode, which really surprised me because it had never happened before and because I have been diving long enough that my situation awareness skills are mostly second nature. It goes to show that these things can happen to anyone at any time. The key is how you deal with them. In your case, you fought down the panic and kept your head cool, which is exactly the point of training and experience. In my case, it was precipitated by getting too wrapped up in photography. It is detailed in the following thread.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/un...-into-deep-danger-getting-overly-focused.html

 

[donniermiller]

i have dove for a couple years and iam 59 years old but that buddy line is a great idea. because my dive partner is my 15 year grand daughter .thank you folks so much for this info.

 

[KeithWasHere]

Wow this is a great lesson and way to handle this issue. Thank you for the lesson in calming. I am just getting back into it and need all the lessons I can get.

 

[mbwilliamn]

Good question about the buddy distance...it will probably help me. I have two people I dive with regularly (all experienced) and we are all very comfortable diving together. I have noticed that we tend to allow more distance between us than if we were diving with someone we are less familiar with...probably a bad habit and I'll bring it up next time we start to dive so that we are all more aware of distance in case of an emergency.

In general I agree with Bowl's comments about buddies and distance...it depends! Although not arm's length, you do need to consider current, viz, etc and ask "how quickly could I get there?"

 

[mbwilliamn]

Sounds like you did all the right things! In any high stress situation, physical contact is tremendous at reducing stress levels.

It sounds to me like the feeling was caused by high CO2....you were clearly working VERY hard against the current and therefore breathing hard, but not necessarily breathing out completely. If you were using an unbalanced regulator, you could also have been suffering from air starvation (low tank pressure and deep diving increase breathing force).

I watched something similar happen to my wife on her 15th dive. Fortunately we had discussed breathing and "calming" prior to the dive. As soon as I saw the "cartoon eyes" in her mask, I grabbed her arm and had her breath in and OUT fully. After about 3 breaths she had expelled enough CO2 that the panic feeling subsided.

Lessons for me from your experience: 1. Keep your buddy close and don't become too combortable (see my response to Lyndon C); 2. Talk about panic feeling and how to handle it in your predive brief/buddy checks; 3. Reinforce that as long as you have air you don't have a problem yet, just a situation!

 

[PerroneFord]

I may get burned for this but IMO how close you need to be to your buddy depends on conditions, viz, depth, current, experience, familiarity with the site.

I disagree. I maintain essentially the same distance from my buddy regardless of conditions. The only exceptions are in zero vis or on the scooter. Otherwise my buddy is within arm's reach. I can't get air to my buddy any better in clear water than in low-vis. My arm span is always the limiting factor.

Know the style of your buddy or buddies and dive accordingly. I don't want to be tripping over my buddy all the time either. Regular contact and communication is vital.

This is an issue of skill more than proximity. I can remain 1ft from my buddy and not touch them. However, my regular buddies and I bump each other all the time on purpose. The reassurance of contact is very welcoming especially after your buddy changes position and may be out of visual range.

***

To the O.P.
In looking at this scenario a few things stand out to me.

1. The ascent line wasn't marked. Probably would have only taken a couple seconds to put a clip or something on the ascent line. Maybe this practice isn't popular, but in a scenario where one could potentially choose the wrong line, I think I'd certainly want it marked. A strobe light or even a piece of tape would do.

2. Buddies got separated. If you had to hit your tank banger to get your buddies attention, you were too far apart. If you had gone OOA at this point, you would have drown. Your buddy was swimming away and couldn't see you, and you couldn't fight the current fast enough to have gotten air in time. Very dangerous at nearly 100ft.

3. Your buddy was 8-10ft above you on the line. Why? I make it a point to be close enough in depth to my buddy to make eye contact and communicate. The eyes tell so much, and we try to descend and ascend at the same level or as close to it as possible.

4. Your buddy should have realized that after a strong swim against the current would have tired you BOTH out. And it would have been good for you each to check on each other before the ascent. These moments in diving, known as transitions, are crucial. They signal a changing point of the dive, and I make of point of checking with my buddy every time one of these transitions points is made. Decisions happen at transition points, and those should be shared.

5. It sounds as if this was a fairly deep dive on air, and narcosis was going to be nipping at your heels. 125ft in strong current is a pretty good challenge.

I did a dive a while back in 120+ft of water on a wreck and suffered some narcosis. My buddies made a conscious decision to separate from me at 118ft to penetrate the wreck and I refused to go. I had been fighting the current, felt my narcosis, knew I wasn't sharp enough to be inside a wreck, and made a decision. I stayed in the lee of the current, caught my breath, and met them on the other side. Sometimes the smallest of decisions can prevent stressful or dangerous situations. But that buddy separation did help me understand some things about how some folks dive.