The ugliest blackout

[le poisson chat]

OK, today i've seen the most ugly blackout I've ever seen, so I decided to start this thread as a reminder one more time. I dove with a guy that is not a very experienced freediver (even though he's a SCUBA instructor and been freediving for more than 4 years but doing it not very often). Anyway he went to his depth about 30 m (he did that not a single time). I dont usualy dive to meet him he never dives to the max and 30 m he did a lot of times so I just kept watching him from a surface. I saw that on his way up his movement were a bit faster than usual (visibility was 30 m so I saw him all the way) so I went down a bit just to see him the last 2 m and suddenly when he was at 8 or smth he raises his head looking for me and starts to wave me distress signals with the hand. Than it was fast - I went down as fast as I can, he released all his air, I grabbed him at 5 m and pulled him up. I pulled his head out of the water and took off his mask. His eyes rolled up, the body stiff, for one second I already had all bad thoughts in a world. Than convulsions started. My both hands were occupied with his head or so it seems to me now so I didnt even took his belt off. After couple of seconds (his face was blue) he finally started to breath and convulsions stopped. The rest of the day he felt awfull,probably he drank a lot of water.
The reason I post it here is practical conclusions:
1. Be mentally prepared that blackout CAN happen to you so dont panic but be prepared mentally.
2. He had an energy to wave me instead of releasing his weightbelt - bad training! (btw make sure u can release your waightbelt with one movement)
3. Dont neglect safety dives, I mean meet a person at 10 or so, when he/she dives deeper than his/her easy zone, just use common sence when u need to meet and when u dont, better to meet anyway.
4. Always watch dives of your buddy from a suface espessialy about 20 s after surfacing (all blackouts I've seen so far were upon surfacing)
5. Blackout at depth is much much more bad than at the surface as I found out today. Be sure u know how to lift a person, training wont harm.
So if anybody wants to share ugly blackouts they saw, it'll be not bad reminder for all of us even though it undermines confidence but it's better to be alive and unconfident than all the way around.
dive safe
dan

 

[efattah]

The worst blackout I ever dealt with, was in 2003.

I was the primary safety freediver at a competition.

The diver was going for -50m no-fins, but the bottom plate was at -71m (logistical error, since the previous diver went to -71m and BO at 15m, and the plate was not raised in the confusion).

I had already 'raised' the BO diver from 15m on the last dive and I was very tired.

I breathed to do the safety dive again.

I went to -25m and waited (using bifins for better mobility).

I waited and waited. No diver. Way past schedule.

The diver had gone to -60m (no-fins) and realized he was in trouble, but thought the bottom plate was at -50m, so he knew he turned at about 10m away from the plate (40m he thought, but actually it was 60m).

I saw him appear at 35m (there were also safety scuba divers at 35m). At about 30m (5m below me), he aborts the dive and starts doing free immersion on the line. He reaches me at 25m; he looks blue and scared, panicked. I try to grab his hand to pull him to the surface (to save him energy), but he pulls away, he doesn't understand, and keeps going up. I take his hand again, now he understands, but then he blacks out, at about 23m (maybe 22m). I grab his jaw and pinch his nose, and start swimming up. I had been waiting at 25m for too long.

The ascent takes forever, swimming with bifins and dragging the 'dead' diver. I am getting huge contractions, I feel my vision fading. I look around for the 2nd safety freediver (visibility is about 3-4m at this depth). The 2nd safety freediver had equalizing problems and was back at the surface.

Finally I reached the surface and expect to have a samba. I breathe hard and my vision goes away, but no samba. I take off the diver's mask and blow on his face. Finally someone takes him from me and tries to wake him up. No one can wake him up. A.R. isn't working, his throat is closed. They try A.R. through his nose; still no luck. People are now shouting his name 'WAKE UP!' they yell. His wife is crying. Minutes pass. No sign of life. After three minutes of artificial respiration finally he wakes up, but he is confused, still blue, and he can only see in black and white. He is spitting blood. He goes on oxygen but looks blue for the rest of the day.

 

[todeep]

Fattah...

That most be the worst "logistical error" ever!

REAL SCARY

:hungover

 

[AltSaint]

Eric, did the person freedive again, competitively or otherwise?

We've had one or two blackouts at our pool training session, and if it has happened to someone inexperienced, it often puts them off freediving. Very often the buddy too / instead.

The worst was a guy doing no-fins dynamic, who surfaced, blacked out, and sank to the bottom ( 3 metres ). His buddy also had no fins, and had trouble bringing him up to the surface. I was looking after someone else, so wasn't aware of the problem until they both surfaced. The blacked-out diver took a good 30 seconds to come around and was quite shaken up. He didn't ever come back again. Since then, we have insisted that no-one provides support without fins.

Still that story is tame compared to Eric's.

 

[le poisson chat]

yeah...
eric's story is scary...
The point is that freediving IS a dangerous activity that requires all our attention when we do it. Most accidents happen as a result of some stupid mistake (I do some climbing so there's plenty of such stories there too).

 

[naiad]

Very scary stories.
I've done it too...

[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showpost.php?p=314667&postcount=4"]DeeperBlue Forums - View Single Post - Bo - Why?[/ame]
[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showpost.php?p=333073&postcount=5"]DeeperBlue Forums - View Single Post - Pushing the limits[/ame]

Not good... Fortunately it hasn't put me off. I am more scared of having to rescue someone than of blacking out myself. I've lost count of the number of sambas I've seen in pool training.

 

[samdive]

Eric's story is scary but very well known, no one tried to hide it at the time and we all learned from it (which is the important thing - if you mess up don't hide it - as we can all do the same thing SO easily). It is hard enough to concentrate and make sure the rope is always in the right place on a NORMAL freedive day - believe me I do it most weekends - when you have just had another scary black out to deal with, it must be almost impossible

As a result of hearing the Canada story (which was a while ago now) I made a rule that if we had a bad BO at saltfree we would stop all the diving for the day. Everyone is too distracted to carry on safely. Luckily we have not had to put it in force yet but it was a lesson learnt from someone else's honesty.

I have BOd twice deep - both very early in my freedive career. The first time I was using a "bottomless" (as far as I was concerned) rope, was wearing scuba fins, too much weight and just well, went too far down it - so now whenever possible I dive with a plate at my target depth or at least a dive alarm set


the second time I had worked non stop 7 day weeks for 3 weeks and finally had a day off - I was knackered and still tried for a PB. I won't do that again!

tell your stories so we can learn!

S

 

[naiad]

the second time I had worked non stop 7 day weeks for 3 weeks and finally had a day off - I was knackered and still tried for a PB. I won't do that again!

I did something similar - I was feeling very tired and ill and I tried to go for a PB, and guess what happened.

 

[rifmaniac]

I'm not very experienced but I think it's a good idea to unfasten the weight belt while resurfacing from a deep dive, or when you're limit whatever the depth. I unfasten my belt buckle and keep a hold of it so that if I BO the belt would hopefully be released, hoping that would help me.
I usually dive on my own; the only problem I had at sea was a samba while resurfacing from 17m with a grouper; I was with a buddy that day. We'd been struggling with that grouper for a few hours and it was already night. When I finally got the grouper out, I was already at my limits and didn't even think about the unfastening belt method. I lost the fish and my knife and am quiet happy with that

 

[samdive]

for those of you training with lines/lanyards - Lotta suggested to me last week that for training dives I put my lanyard on my weightbelt. Its not allowed in competitions but for training it might be a good idea as that way the weightbelt would not be lost if ditched, and so if there was a problem on ascent, ditching might not be such a big decision! might be a good move...

 

[naiad]

I saw that on his way up his movement were a bit faster than usual (visibility was 30 m so I saw him all the way) so I went down a bit just to see him the last 2 m and suddenly when he was at 8 or smth he raises his head looking for me and starts to wave me distress signals with the hand.
2. He had an energy to wave me instead of releasing his weightbelt - bad training! (btw make sure u can release your waightbelt with one movement)

I don't think this is necessarily due to bad training. Someone who is about to blackout may be semi-conscious and confused about what to do. This is why people who samba doing statics often give a confident OK sign while falling over backwards.

I think it is still important to make sure that releasing the weightbelt is an automatic action, as this makes it more likely that in a real problem situation it will happen.

Lucia

 

[naiad]

It is understandable if someone is put off by something like that, but I think it is better if newbies see a minor blackout sooner rather than later. It makes them realise that it can and does happen, and tests their ability to deal with it.

I would not want to have a buddy who might panic if something happens to me.

 

[Skywalker]

He is spitting blood. He goes on oxygen but looks blue for the rest of the day.

Hi Eric just curious how did the treatment of the diver go on if it did?

Regarding the issue mounting the safety on the weightbelt some other freedivers from vienna and I also talked about that. It sounds usefull and I formyself would propably more likely release my belt when I know it is safe early enough and not to late. But if you are going deep and having troubles surfacing and/or already have a bad feeling at a very early stage of your ascend you might drop your belt and with that your safety very early. And a not connected blacked out drifting (descending) diver is at least one of my worst nightmares. And the diver will have a better buoyancy after the drop but still will be negative most of the ascend due to lung and suit compression.

Robert

 

[bluecape]

Hi all

Very interesting topic. i met a very interesting older diver 2 weeks ago, who grew up near Alba, and, as in the Big Blue, spent much of his youth diving for coins etc.

In his late teens, as an active spearo, he shot a big grouper very deep, whilst diving alone, after a long wait, and realised on the ascent that he was in trouble. He immeaditely ditched his weight belt at about 18 meters, and the next thing he remembers waking up, floating on his back. he had no idea how long he was out for, and the last thing he recalls was dropping his belt, but still feeling ok.

I have mailed him to try and send me an account of his dive for the forum.

Cheers

jeff

 

[fcallagy]

dont know how it wood be done but suely with the collective intellect here some one could or already has come up with a fail proof dive retrival system. Like a lift bag placed at the bottom plate with a pin that could be pulled by a safety diver in the event of an abort. This acends at speed " catching " the now panicking diver and propeling them to the surface via their lanyard where they can be treated. I know this is use in some clubs etc but is usually attached by a safety diver. Maybe one thats there all the time and can be released by the safety buddy diver means they know the diver will be at the surface one way or the other albeit posiibly with bruises if they get hit by the apparatus.