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----- Original Message ----- From: <Scaleworks@ao*.co*> To: <jdm49@ca*.ac*.uk*>; <mmowens@pa*.co*> Cc: <quest@gu*.co*>; <techdiver@aquanaut.com> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 3:40 PM Subject: Re: here we go again was - NY DCS hit > What ever happened to being responsible for you own actions? Everyone from > the buddy to the captain and crew are being blamed here. What responsibility > does the diver who suffered the incident hold? > > The incident also begs the following questions. > Should a diver that rockets to the surface be followed by his buddy? If so at > what ascent rate? If you ascend at a rate to preclude embolism, your buddy > will be on the surface for a minute or two before you arrive. Kevin, that's BS. Unless you have asthma, you can ascend pretty much as fast as you want to by exhaling hard. Back in the 70's I used to practice free ascents from 90 to 130 feet--just so that if it ever came up, I could do it easily. While we know "now" that this is NOT a smart practice, I can tell you I could chase anyone up to the surface without worrying about an embolism. And I would be headed right back down with them unless they were blacking out or worse--in which case I would stay with them until the boat got someone in the water to take over--then I'd do a rapid descent. A buddy should and could have tried to prevent this ascent accident. If their are > 2-3 ft seas upon surfacing, with a current, will you be able to see your > buddy from your perspective, or even reach him in the current? The buddy should be reacting long before this guy is out of sight---he should have been watching when the problem occured if there was a gas switch going on. Even if he missed the start of this problem, if he saw the guy ascending at flank speed, he could have followed to attempt some life saving. That's his job. If you are > experiencing DCS symptons upon surfacing, what good are you to your buddy? As an air diver, you should have 2 or three minutes on the surface prior to hypersaturation releasing enough bubbles to be much of an issue to you--more than enough time to render immediate aid and get others to help--then to head back down to do deco. > The crew on the Wahoo is on constant watch when divers are in the water, and > have the proper perspective to see a surfacing diver in trouble. The diver > would have been rescued and evaluated, and a tender dressed to take him back > down if possible before you even surfaced. This tender will have a fresh set > of back gas, and appropriate amounts and mixes of deco gas. He will be fresh, > with no deco obligation or DCS symptons, or possibility of neurological > complications that could kill both divers if they went back down. Now you > surface, your gas supply is limited, you are possibly suffering DCS symptons, > or will be soon, since you did not come up the anchor line, you are floating > downstream in the offshore current, and need to be rescued yourself, you have > exacerbated and compounded the problems, and distracted the crew from the > business at hand. First I'll FAULT the boat for anchoring in a big current on a tech dive, with no chase boat to help in a scenario like this. Forcing divers to use an upline instead of helping a buddy is sheer stupidity in my book. It seems to be economics and ego over common sense. We have much larger currents on our deep wreck dives than you guys ever will, and have no issues like you have. But the boats we use will not drop 30 divers into a free for all--they drop groups that will ascend together as a team, and a problem to one is dealt with by all---in the drift ascent. Who is best prepared and capable of handling the situation? > What services are you as a buddy going to be able to provide to the diver in > distress? Should the diver go back down while suffering advanced type I > symptons on surfacing, and risk having type II symptons develop upon > recompression becoming paralyzed, going into shock, or having convulsions? Considering the drastically increased damage every additional minute will cause, I would not consider waiting 2 to 5hours or more to get to a chamber--to me, that is begging for life in a wheel chair or worse. Regards, Dan Volker -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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