Regardless of why a team of divers may face the possibility of running out of gas and suffering a double fatality during an exit, divers have been there, and as rjack pointed out, they will be there again. Some of these same divers sat at their home PC's, notebook computers, Blackberry's, whatever, and read posts in SB, TDS, CDF, RBW, and other message boards and "Monday-morning quarterbacked" just like we do here. The only difference between us and them is that we are still alive and haven't faced the situations that claimed their lives.
No one is too good, too careful, too well-trained, too DIR, too experienced, too whatever not to face the situation of running out of gas. If you think you are, you are mistaken, but you will probably spend your life diving without incident anyway. Such situations are rare.
But, like a surfer who was attacked by a shark said, no matter what the statistics say, when it is happening to you, it is real.
If the improbable becomes your reality, as the donor, you are the lifeguard. In any situation when a buddy turns to you for help, you become the lifeguard. As a lifeguard, I was taught not to die for my victim. As a lifeguard instructor, I teach lifeguards not to die for their victims. A drowning is tragic. A double drowning is twice the tragedy and unnecessary.
Since my technical training began with GUE, I always placed a heavy emphasis on team. During my NACD instruction, I was introduced to possible scenarios involving the decision to leave a buddy:
1. Stuck diver
2. Frozen (due to stress) diver
3. Panicked diver on long hose
4. Divers sharing gas and donor doesn't have enough to exit both safely
I've actually faced the second scenario in real-life in Ginnie Springs. An inexperienced teammate became disoriented during the exit upon reaching the 90° bend in the gold line at the jump that will go to the Bone Room. Despite the gold line, the double arrows pointing out, and the flow, he second-guessed his directional awareness, and reached a state of fear that caused him to freeze solid. I established touch contact and gave him the signal to "Go!" several times, each time more forcefully, but he stayed put. I got in front of him and tried to get him to follow me. He snapped out of it and did. He still cave dives. He doesn't know what happened that night.
While an impossibly stuck diver might also be rare, most of us know about the death that occurred in the dry cave recently when the spelunker became stuck upside down for days. Even a rescue team couldn't free him in time. Underwater, we normally don't have days.
When it comes to gas sharing exits, the donor's life is also at high-risk. If the OOG diver goes into a panicked mode, you may need to fight off the diver and either establish control or get rid of the diver and exit. I dealt with a panicked diver who was low on gas on the Spiegel Grove. He was out of shape, hoovered his gas, and the panic came during the gas switch. I made the mistake of handing him his reg first before turning it on. I knew better, but in the battle to get him squared away, I handed him his reg and he breathed it & bolted. I managed to catch him and get him calmed and squared away. The battle was right out of my old school Red Cross Advanced Lifesaving class with a tough as nails instructor, but at 70 feet underwater. Fortunately, that ended okay.
Both a panicked diver on a long hose, and the scenario with which I started the thread, a diver on a long hose where there isn't enough gas to exit both team members gives the donor two options:
1. Ride it out and manage the situation as best as you can
2. Get rid of your buddy
In the first resolution, you may get lucky. You may be able to use some of the tactics posted here such as skip-breathing and staying as high as you can, also doing your best to slow down and be smooth, deliberate and efficient. You may find a way to live and you may not. If the diver is panicked, I was taught to shut off my right post and turn it back on in hopes that a panicked diver will snap out of it.
If not, Option Number 2: get rid of him. Turn it off and keep it off and then hang on to my back-up regulator with everything that I have and hold dear if attacked for gas. If you are exiting and see that you don't have enough gas, you can do the same.
A thinking teammate is an asset.
A panicked teammate is a threat.
A teammate using precious gas is a risk.
A single diver emerging from a wreck or a cave is better than two who do not.
For the community of divers, one survivor who could live to tell the story of an event is a much better ambassador for safety and the lessons learned than one hundred divers speculating over the event.
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