Dangers of free diving?

[Mr. X]

Hi,
As a relatively new spearo I started reading up on latest free diving techniques & theory. It is pretty scary to read. I also talk to a scuba instructor. There seems to be some new ailment, accident scenario or danger to discuss every time we meet. I thought it might be interesting to create a list of common injuries, maladies, etc. that afflict freedivers ... so that we all know what we are letting ourselves in for.

Here is my little starter list, please feel free to add more, correct, re-classify, etc. or explain more (some of these seem to be inter-related):

1. Blackout
a. LOMC "loss of motor control (LOMC or LMC)".
b. SWB Shallow Water Blackout (scary)



2. Coughing blood.
a. Associated with Blebs (=bubbles)? "Foaming saliva with traces of blood".
(intra-alveolar hemorrhaging?)

3. Barotrauma
a. "Lung Squeeze" = pulmonary oedema/edema (the one that kills high altitude mountaineers, along with the celebral variety).
b. Ear injuries: perforated ear drum (, ruptures to inner ear/eustachean tubes??)

4. "Free diver bends" ? Presumably caused by repeated short duration, deep dives within a relatively short period of time.

5. Immersion hypothermia

6. Perforated lung/pneumothorax/collapsed lung.

[***See "The Master List", maintained below]

[Merlin]

Dont forget perforated ear drum

The one that is always in my head is blackout, by far the scarriest thing I have ever experienced. Not the experience itself but the fact that it happened. Most difficult thing to predict and it has the worse consequences.

[naiad]

Although blackout can have the worst consequences, if I am in a safe environment with a buddy I am much more scared of the other things, like lung squeeze and perforated eardrum. At least after a blackout I am not physically injured. The thing that scares me the most is being left with terrible health problems, which is what puts me off many other sports. I think I am reasonably careful, and what I do is unlikely to seriously damage my health, so I hope it's OK!

I can't think of any more things that can go wrong...

Lucia

[Ntrik]

Drowning tops my list

[Pocoshower]

loosing job scares me, well just a little bit.

[SanSan]

Dont forget the deep water blackout, sinuse squeeze, trachea squeeze, CO2 narcosis...

[Mr. X]

The Master List

(I will edit this copy with any new suggestions):

1. Drowning , asphyxia by submersion

2. Blackout

a. LOMC "loss of motor control (LOMC or LMC)".
b. SWB/SAMBA Shallow Water Blackout (scary)
c. DWB, Deep Water Blackout
d. Vacuum Effect.
e. Laryngospasm

3. CO2 Narcosis

4. "Free diver bends" = Nitrogen Narcosis Presumably caused by repeated short duration, deep dives within a relatively short period of time.

5. Immersion hypothermia

6. Loosing out in other areas of your life (due to inattention)[ref. this thread]

a. Loosing your job
b. Loosing girlfriend/boyfriend
c. "Tastes of enlightenment, leading to enthusiastic pro-active spiritual seeking at the expense of all other 3 dimensional pursuits"

7. Decompression sickness - yes, freedivers can get this.

8. Lung contractions

9. Cardiac arrest

10. Respitory arrest

11. Amnesia (where was I?)

12. Temporary paralysis

13. Cyanosis -- a bluish or purplish tinge to the skin and mucous membranes

14. Bleeding nose.

15. Eye pain

16. Stroke. Read Nigel Dobier's poignant lifting buoy review.

17. "Immersion Diuresis"/dehydration

18. Diaphragm/abdominal injuries (more info. required here)
a. Strained Diaphragm

19. Injury by sea creature:

- poisoned (jelly fish, etc.)
- eaten/bitten (shark attack, congor, giant squid?,...)
- shocked (electric eel)

20. Infection -- sewage, bacteria/amoeba/prion/virus, farm run-off & other pollution

21. Poisoned/irradiated -- pollution e.g. mercury, fuel, chemical run off, Sellafield overflow, jellyfish

22. Collision trauma -- run over by a boat, ship, kayak, jet ski, whale-shark, anchor,...

23. Brain Hypoxia. "Black spot on the brain" after blackout. ("black spot = little bit of brain dead, lost forever"). [ref. this thread]

24. Neoprene/rubber related issues (allergy, fetish, chaffing, pissette/bec du canard related issues, suffocation, loosing balance while suiting-up, fastening beaver tail around rail [ref. movie this thread], etc.)!

25. Asthma attack (chlorine/stress/allergy induced [also ref. talc issues below]).

26. Silicosis/talco-silicosis/talcum lung /Talcosis -- if you use talc or other dry powders instead of wet lubes to get your open-cell wetsuit on. [Also see asthma attack above].

27. Loss of voice/raspy voice

28. Chronic sypmtoms similar to pulmonary hypertension. Caused by "vasoconstriction caused by the dive reflex and hypoxia (kind of like in sleep apnea)."

29. Sleep Apnea

30. Equipment failure: " Things like lift bags not inflating, getting tangled, or visits from curious marine life..." [ref. ]Tanya Streeter: a Deep Interview by Peter Scott on DeeperBlue.net - Fanatical About FreeDiving, Scuba Diving, Spearfishing & Technical Diving. Sled failure [see drowning, above]

31. Arrythmia (irregular heart beat)

32. Entanglement in fishing line, nets, anchor lines, lobster pots, float lines, water ski lines, boat rails. Carry a knife, a big, sharp one with a serrated edge or powerful dive shears.

33. Choking on gum (check out thread on DeeperBlue -- I kid you not, caused heart attack too).

34. "getting jumped on/kicked/stood on/trapped underwater by other pool users" [ref. this thread]

35. Vertical split in toe nail on largest toes (caused by finning).

36. Speared [ref. DeeperBlue threads]

37. hypocapnia - "a state in which the level of carbon dioxide in the blood is lower than normal; can result from deep or rapid breathing" - hypocapnia - definition of hypocapnia by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

38. Surfer's Ear. Bone growth around the outer ear caused by frequent exposure to cold water. Read the Devon 2006 thread to hear from sufferers (& surfers). Apparently quite common for spearos with other water sport interests.

Barotrauma

39. "Lung Squeeze" = pulmonary oedema/edema (the one that kills high altitude mountaineers, along with the celebral variety).

40. Coughing blood.
a. Associated with Blebs (=bubbles)? "Foaming saliva with traces of blood".
(intra-alveolar hemorrhaging?)

41. Perforated lung/pneumothorax/collapsed lung.

43. Lung over-expansion injury

43. Ear injuries: perforated ear drum (, ruptures to inner ear/eustachean tubes??)

44. Sinus squeeze

45. Trachea squeeze

46. Tooth squeeze

Keep them coming (Any Doctors/Dentists/Nurses/Paramedics/lifeguards/patients/... out there?)

[SanSan]

I rememberd another. Decompresion sicknes (DCS).

For all the people reading this. Most of things listed here u have to dive to extreme depths to be dangerous. 90% of those things wont happen when diving to lets say 30m or less whitch again only a minoryti of people can do.

[naiad]

*gulp* I guess I won't be training this week...

Losing job - why? Apnea in the workplace? I thought I was the only one who holds my breath everywhere!

Lucia

[immerlustig]

hi,

quote:
"I am much more scared of the other things, like lung squeeze and perforated eardrum."

but these are the easiest to avoid. avoiding a bo can be more difficult i guess. i do agree, though, that longterm effects, especially lung damages, are more severe than a bo.

sansan, people have barotraumas all the time even in very shallow water (missed equalisation, etc). the only things you can reasonably avoid when diving less than 30m are narcosis and dcs.

what i´d like to hear more about is the possibility of lung overexpansion injury. there is supposedly a rare chance (in theory) but i haven´t heard of a real case.

cheers,

roland

[Mr. X]

Any risk of brain damage from oxygen starvation/blacking out? Seems like there would be. Longer term issues from repeated black outs (alzhimers/Parkinsons/dementure/scaring/...)?

What about long term lung issues? Lungs seem like something that don't repair as well as, say, muscles. Any scaring issues. How about onset of allegeries or asthma (indoor pools bring on asthma in some people).

[Mr. X]

Also, see this thread: http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=18238

[Rémi]

A bite like "loosing your job", you have "loosing your girlfriend"
This can happen in a couple of holidays, if not week-ends take care !!

[samdive]

Remi is right! losing your partner is by far the most dangerous part of freediving...

I see it everytime someone joins SaltFree - the first couple of weekends the girlfriend is sitting patiently in the car. By the third month she is conspicuously absent....

and then of course there is my own life...... I can safely say I have lost more boyfriends because of freediving than I have had black outs!!

[Donna]

Perfect solution to that - make sure your partner is a scuba diver and can become an angel!! Problem solved.....