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19 Year old almost loses his life freediving

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ricki

Well-Known Member
Dec 15, 2005
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"Both are 19 years old with substantial free diving experience. This is what happened from Rick R.

My friend james and I decided to go freedive 70ft just for fun as we are comfortable at this depth. We went, made it to the bottom and everything was going great, we gave each other a high five at the bottom with what we thought plenty of oxygen in our lungs and started to ascend. On our way up when i got to the surface When I got to the surface I realised James had not made it back up, I looked down and James was 20ft below drifting away unconscious with the current. I immediately went back down and saw his face, something I will never forget it, his entire face was blue including his chest, his lips and his eyes where bulging out of the sockets. I wasnt sure if he was going to live... I swam him to the surface and at this point the current had pulled us away from the boat, I shouted as loud as I could for them to come. At this point I am trying to give him cpr while the boat is heading over. I'm not sure how we got james on the boat but we did. We were giving him cpr and he was foaming out of the mouth with blood coming out of his nose. After what seemed like forever he finally coughed a little bit and started to breath very little. We ran him into the nearest marina were the paramedics were waiting. He is in the hospital now conscious and talking. I was puking and almost passed out myself once I got on the boat. I was so happy when I saw james breath I bursted out in tears, I thought he was dead... "

Continued at: [ame=http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=9948]19 Year old almost loses his life freediving - FKA Kiteboarding Forums[/ame]
 
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What a nightmare!
I hope he makes a full recovery and dives again, good job he had you on hand to help him out. Well done for the CPR.
 
epic! Really drives home how important a buddy is. Thank the gods for that breath and cpr.
 
I wasn't there, this was posted on my forum and I thought the account was worth sharing. It was a very good thing so many long shots came through resulting in the diver surviving.

- a blackout at 20 ft
- likely inhaled water during laryngospasm followed by heart failure
- his buddy saw him while he was still within visibility and recovered him to the surface
- the other 19 year old, started CPR with a usually low success rate and brought him around
- a rush trip to the dock and on to the hospital
- being released with pneumonia within a few days

An incredible story of a near fatal blackout and fortunate save. It is good he will be seeking proper training with FII to hopefully avoid any repeats of something like this in the future.
 
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This story illustrates both the importance of a buddy and the necessity of following safety protocols. One up, one down is the bedrock of freediving safety. It sounds like the blue one probably hyperventilated at surface thereby depleting his blood C02 which is what gives us the signal to breath. Hyperventilating makes for a more comfortable freedive as the urge to breath is suppressed, but the downside is becoming severely hypoxic without warning and suffering SWB. I highly recommend anyone who is half way serious about freediving to take at least a level one course through an FII certified instructor - freediving is too much fun to have to quit because you died an avoidable death.
 
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Reactions: Vov
One major concern for me is how to teach youngsters so that they believe and not say to themselves 'this cannot happen to me, 'cause I'm 'special', or 'better'... It is strange how people tend to want to learn everything by experience and easily forget safety rules and procedures.
 
ricki said:
"Both are 19 years old with substantial free diving experience. This is what happened from Rick R.......
Click to expand...

I-m not so shure about that statement.....
But is very good that no one died
 

Every one is guilty of this, how did you overcome that mentality when you were younger?? Take that information and then try and get a kid to understand that....good luck.. Also, what you are describing is not strange by any means, it's called human nature. I'm sure you are guilty of it as well, we all are.

Either way, these kids did everything proper that they could have and the diver is still alive today. They should be receiving nothing but praise.
 
If I could I would ask them how many dives and at what depths they did before that one...
I prefer to gradually increase depths every time I go diving... this gives me the opportunity to notice anything wrong at a safer depth...
 
Vov said:
That is a nice device, provided that the person in need is capable to assess and understand the exact moment to use it.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you should read about the features of the vest more carefully. While the vest can be manually activated, the beauty of it is that the diver can set trigger depth and times, and the vest will inflate if he exceeds either one. In the case of this kid who blacked out, the vest would have brought him to the surface, on his back, facing the sky. Even if his snorkel was still in his mouth, the snorkel would have been above the surface. I've tested my own vest and verified this. And if he had chosen a trigger time just longer than his normal dive time, it probably would have brought him up before he got water in his lungs.

But whatever his condition when he surfaced, it would have been far easier to attempt CPR and get him to the boat. He would have been supported by the vest with his face well above the water.

In this case his buddy happened to see him and was able to bring him up, but what if the visibility had been poor and his buddy couldn't see him? The vest would have brought him up.

I own one of these vests, and I won't dive without it. It takes a little bit more time suiting up, but after that I can wear it all day and never notice it, either in the water or in the boat.
 
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Thank you very much Bill, I did forget about the automated timer... Of course you are wright - anybody can dive far more safely WITH the safety vest on. I would expect to see the use of that vest as mandatory at international diving competitions. It would make it more popular. But somehow people still don't use it very often. I haven't seen that device in Bulgarian shops for sure.
 
I'm afraid that comparatively few divers use it here. Of course price is a problem for the population that needs it most, the young aggressive types who think they are immortal. But even guys who could afford one don't use one. I'm afraid that some divers feel that it makes them look like sissies.

Its not available in shops anywhere. It must be purchased directly from Terry Maas.
 
Reactions: Vov
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