Vomiting during a dive

[subdude]

Leave the reg in your mouth and puke away. It worked for me 10 yrs ago at 90 fsw, fortunately I haven't tested the procedure since.

subdude

 

[chiara]

The only time I fed the fish it happened because my reg had decided to divorce from the mouthpiece all of a sudden.

As a consequence, I drank some saltwater, and two minutes later out it came again.

On instinct I took my regulator and kept it out of the mouth but still close enough to be able to breathe through the bubbles.

I heard that if you puke through your reg you'd better take it for servicing before using it again.

 

[WreckWriter]

Just blow through the reg. If you take it out you're chances of drowning rise exponentially. Puke through the reg, keep your backup/octopus handy in case the primary clogs. When you're done blowing chow switch to your backup and shake your primary out real well.

No need for service unless there's a problem which is highly unlikely. A little extra rinsing might be in order.

Tom

 

[Groundhog246]

Tim Cavender once bubbled...
As a newbie diver, I would like to plan for this event. The "Dan America Dive & Travel Medical Guide" revised 1/99 p. 34 addressing motion sickness describes problems from emesis including,"loss of buoyancy control because of vomiting through a regulator underwater can lead to an air embolism; and if the diver removes the regulator to vomit, the reflex inhalation which preceds vomiting may cause drowning." Any input for this output problem??

Your instructor didn't cover this? We went over this scenario more than once, with the instructors stressing "do not remove your reg". The reflex is a huge inhale, after you've vomited.
They have had divers vomit on their certification dives. Not sure about the loss of buoyancy, I've come very close to vomiting underwater once. I became quite dizzy and dis-oriented, I think from the manuvering we'd been doing. I placed a hand on my buddy's BC, made sure he was looking at me and we hovered there for a couple of minutes, while I took some fairly deep breaths till it passed and then called the dive.
When you're done, switch to your octo for your ascent. You've probably finished for the dive anyway.
Motion sickness will affect some people more than others. I've never been so bad off, that I couldn't manage the task(s) at hand. As a frequent solo sailor, you must remain in control of the boat. I rarely get "seasick", but when I have, I've always been able to "toss" over the downwind side and still maintain control.

Bonamine tablets have been my preferred preventative. Only need to take every 24 hours and don't make me sleepy, etc., like gravol. Be careful and assess the affects of any drug on the surface before attempting to take before diving, start with shallow dives, before deeper ones to assess any side effects AND TELL YOUR BUDDY IF YOU'VE TAKEN ANYTHING. :boom:

 

[Lawman]

Be sure if you vomit NOT to close your mouth! That's
the leading cause of the Warhammer Maneuver.

 

[dc4bs]

Lawman once bubbled...
Be sure if you vomit NOT to close your mouth! That's
the leading cause of the Warhammer Maneuver.

LOL

Hmmm... I would have said not to close the mouth to prevent a mask-full...

Yes, it's possible!

I tossed through my nose once. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to open my mouth (had just finished dinner shortly before at summer camp and something didn't agree with me). It was all I could smell for the next few days. Yuck.

 

[Scuba]

I have vomited underwater a couple times and have found that during the first inhalation after vomiting there may be a gurgling sound since some of the vomit may still be in the regulator, but it does'nt impede breathing. During the next exhalation it cleared, and back to normal. I suppose body position can be important hear. Keep your head facing down or upright and angle it down, as opposed to looking up where whatever is not expelled can wash back in your mouth during inhalation.

Another thing is to hold the regulator or the hose right next to the regulator with one of your hands to keep it in place since a particularly violent action may cause you to expell the regulator from your mouth.

 

[Diver0001]

Tim Cavender once bubbled...
<snip> Any input for this output problem??

Leave the reg in your mouth. I can attest to the fact that you can puke entire chocolate bars out of at least one kind of reg ..... and the fish love it......

R..

 

[JessicaDodge]

I am an old pro at vomiting under water... I do it every time I dive. The first time I did it in the regulator (like my instructor said) and just purged it well afterwards... the other times I took the reg out cause it just seemed gross. I just made a concious effort not to breath back in and did fine. I think with the regulator in is probably safer.... but with it out is a lot less gross. SO you can either take the chance of dieing or be gross and have your reg serviced if need be.

Jessica

 

[Tim Cavender]

Thanks to all who posted this valuable information! Thanks also to ScubaBoard for providing these forums. Merry Christmas to everyone!