Losing Jo Options

[Rob Dobson]

Following on from the recent 'fumes' incident (see http://www.tecdivers.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5), Jo and I had a curry. The food was average at best but it gave me the chance get out of my head all of the things that I had been mentally crucifying myself over during the 22 minutes of deco stops during which time I thought I'd lost her. In between thoughts of having to drive to her sisters house and having to explain not only how she had died but why I had done nothing about it, I was running through all of the failures and mistakes that had led to that point (covered elsewhere).

After hearing the facts that I didn't have in the water I vowed that the following rules were to be cast in stone and never broken:

1) Bring a kit of rehydration salts and O2 onto every boat.

2) Do not do dives with even moderate deco obligations if the skipper has no crew or some form of surface cover (other divers who are going to sit it out).

3) The moment a CCR diver is off of their loop get their ass up. Do not assume they are in control, do not assume anything. Get them up.

4) Work out how much bailout you need. Double it.

5) Talk to your own non-diving family and friends and explain to them the reality of someone searching the seabed for an unconscious diver.

6) No matter how much yo have had to overcome it is never too late to call a dive. Despite the aggravation, the distance and the expense we should have walked away once the engines started due to the fumes.

Jo and I also agreed to take a serious look at Full Face Masks (FFMs). They would not have directly assisted in this scenario but on balance they seem to provide more survival options when the wheels fall off.

[The Duck]

...Jo and I also agreed to take a serious look at Full Face Masks (FFMs). They would not have directly assisted in this scenario but on balance they seem to provide more survival options when the wheels fall off.

Hi Rob and Jo,

After reading the incident I'd like to say I'm really glad that your both OK.

As I'm not an RB diver I'm looking to gain a bit of understanding rather than critiquing one of the above comments.

The full face masks - while I can see that they do offer advantages in the event of an ox tox, I would have thought that (especially in the event of CO or CO2 issues) that they could be more of a hinderance than a help. This is due to that when bailing out with a FFM you'd loose not only your gas source but also your vision - so instead of getting onto fresh gas, your getting onto fresh gas while blind and then digging out a backup mask. All ok in good conditions but when highly stressed, or debilitated by panic/bad gas/etc ...

Also point 6, above, you're spot on. John & I have canned a dive at the 6m bubble check before now - but then again hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[jo_c]

FFMs for rebreathers are slightly different, (although some of the same principles apply). First off a rebreather FFM has an internal bitepiece - you breathe through this to breathe off the rebreather loop.

You can also plug in an oc reg to the side pod on the mask. You can access this gas by breathing through your nose. Effectively you have 2 active sources of gas, 1 rebreather and 1 oc.

To bail off the loop completely, you can remove the front pod which the loop is attached to and plug in an oc reg underwater. The benefit of this system is you always have something to breathe.

Removing the mask is like to be a PITA, however, due to the internal bitepiece you can keep breathing from facemask front pod (be it loop or oc) while removing/clearing the mask.

I have another article on this that I need to post - it's a bit long though