Witnessed a panic attack

[JodiBB]

Hello all....I saw something that I thought I'd share with all of you...

I was on a dive boat today in California and as we were anchoring for our 1st dive of the morning there was already another boat (with about 8 divers I'd guess) whose divers had just entered the water. It was a wreck dive, with 51 degrees at depth (about 100') and visability was only 10-15'. The swells were picking up at about 4 feet, and it was cloudy, so the conditions weren't the best.

My buddy and another diver from our boat entered the water and drifted to the buoy as we were instructed by the DM to do. I was about to enter myself, when suddenly we heard blood-curdling screams from a woman...it was a diver from the other boat! She was screaming for help and flailing all over the place. My buddy and the other diver were already near her and was trying to tell her to add air to her BCD to prevent her from sinking. My buddy was (without getting too close) trying to tell her to breathe, any instructions given to her were responded by her with, "I CAN'T!" The DM on their boat just stood on the boat yelling down to her.

I've worked with people with panic attacks before and finished putting on my fins and entered the water to drift over to her, but by the time I entered, the screaming stopped and I believe they got her on the boat.

This was a true panic attack in full form. We don't know anything about her, whether it was her first deep dive, or the lack of vis panicked her, or the cold or all/none of the above....after our dive, our group (which included a PADI instructor and an EMT) discussed the situation...we felt that their DM should've done something in addition to yelling down to her, but it wasn't our boat and we couldn't interfere (any more than what my buddy and the other diver were trying to instruct her to do).

I just hope she's okay...We saw a 2nd boat later come up to the dive boat, but it wasn't a coast guard boat. Maybe that boat took her back to land....we don't know what happened. The sad part is that there is a 90% chance that this person will never dive again....

 

[Thalassamania]

Heck of a story, thanks for sharing it.

we couldn't interfere (any more than what my buddy and the other diver were trying to instruct her to do).

Please don't worry, no disrespect or criticism is intended here. I'm curiuous as to why you, your instructor, your DM, etc., felt that you couldn't interfere.

 

[JodiBB]

When panic attacks occur, (like I said, I've worked with people who've experienced them) the more people that intervene, the more that panic can set in and confuse the person who's having the PA. Since two people from our boat were already talking to her and she had a DM yelling down to her, more people could've confused her....

But the point was moot...by the time I got into the water, and the EMT was rigged up the incident was over.

 

[Thalassamania]

Sounds good to me, as long as someone was with her to help her, and someone was. Panic is an amazing thing; I once came across a new diver that was trying to pull himself up out of the water (in full gear) on the bowline of a smallish boat. There was a swim platform not twenty feet away, but he was going to keep pulling on that line until he was exhausted, fell back into the water and drowned. We quietly took care of him and got him first onto a surf mat and then onto the Swim platform of his boat. It is amazing what a full-blown attack look likes. And folks always say, I don't know why he drowned, he had air in his tank and I yelled at him to put his regulator in his mouth.

 

[JodiBB]

Sounds good to me, as long as someone was with her to help her, and someone was. Panic is an amazing thing; I once came across a new diver that was trying to pull himself up out of the water (in full gear) on the bowline of a smallish boat.

It's interesting you mentioned this. The girl we saw was trying to jump onto the buoy, which was large, round, and slippery with wet moss. She tried again and again to jump onto this thing to get out of the water. Obviously, it wouldn't work, but in her state of panic, she was doing anything possible to get out of the water.

 

[Thalassamania]

That's the instinct.

 

[Cacia]

wow. I had a little minor incident in the kelp off catalina. Got tangled up, got to the surface barely and the kelp continued to "eat me alive" and I started whacking and slashing away with my knife. My "rescuers" kept shouting "put- the- knife- away!" before coming any closer. hahaha. ...how embarassing.

maybe the lady will get over it, but probably not...doesn't sound like she will ever think it was funny.

 

[Rick Inman]

Staying away from a panicked diver is a good idea. If they're on the surface flailing around and screaming then they're alive and breathing. Instructions to inflate BC and staying away seems to be what the DM was doing, which is wise. Of course, I wasn't there. But a basic rule of Rescue is to make sure you don't get within hugging range of a diver panicking on the surface. Unless you're trained to handle someone like this, it is best not to try, thereby creating two divers needing rescue.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Jodi,

Thanks for sharing, excellent story.

A couple of months ago I witnessed an eerily similar incident.

In this case, it was the Caribbean, a male diver on our boat for a wreck dive. He had gong into the water shortly before me. As a dive master was handing my camera down to me, my buddy hollared "watch your back, Jeff...panicked diver."

The diver, who was not wearing a wetsuit, was in a full blown panic and heading back to the boat, flailing and screaming that 'something's wrong...I can't breathe!'

I had a bulky camera and he was pretty much at the ladder so he wan't in that much danger. I tried to tell him to put his reg in and mask back on, but nothing was going to deter him from getting back on the boat.

My rescue class training kicked in and I could assess that he was not in immediate danger, close to the boat ladder and my getting close to him was not going to help. The boat crew was assisting as well.

Your story reminded me of that incident and reinforces to me the importance of stress rescue training for all divers.

Jeff

 

[JodiBB]

wow. I had a little minor incident in the kelp off catalina. Got tangled up, got to the surface barely and the kelp continued to "eat me alive" and I started whacking and slashing away with my knife. My "rescuers" kept shouting "put- the- knife- away!" before coming any closer. hahaha. ...how embarassing.

maybe the lady will get over it, but probably not...doesn't sound like she will ever think it was funny.

Catherine....most likely, people who experience a full-blown panic attack won't return to the scene where the attack occurred for fear that another attack will occur. There is a more likely chance she won't return, but I keep my fingers crossed for her that she works on whatever caused the panic and work through it.

I've gotten tangled up in Catalina Kelp. I remembered my instructor telling me how easy it was to break, so I just snapped the heck out of it until I broke free....but it can be scary.

I would love to know (for my own sake) as to what set off that woman's panic attack....