A Dive is not over until safely back on the boat or land

[Lynx737]

I went for a dive today with my eldest son, he is 19 and qualified as a PADI instructor, technical diver and very fit. He has been diving from a young age and very capabable.

The dive was excellent considering the time of year, we went to 24m for a drift known as the canon ball run and we even found a canon ball (no lift bag) so left the ball. Usual mix of scallops, a few sleepy dogfish and a very dozy pipefish.

We planned to thumb the dive at 100 bar which we did after 26 minutes from 24m, even allowing +2m for the cold we were still inside table NDL and all computers showed >10mins to the NDL. We ascended at a leisurely 9-10m per minute with big smiles from the dive. At 15m and 28 minutes run time my son experienced a head pain that completely debilitated him and he cannot recall very much from that point until on the surface.

I controlled the ascent which took a further minute as I adjusted to 18m a minute as opposed to our normal 10m per minute and bypassed the safety stop. Standard kit off into boat (a rib) then onto O2 and assess. He was by now fully able to communicate and had severe head pain with some vertigo.

Our best guess was a reverse squeeze in the sinus, I also noted a lot of mucus dripping from the nose onto the O2 regulator as we headed back. A call to the duty dive doctor agreed with the symptoms and the profile, time and ascent rates meant a DCS or AGE were unlikely.

The rate of recovery also indicated that a reverse squeeze had occured - Son had a cold which cleared 2 weeks previous to this dive and no difficulty was expereinced in descent.

My point is not the incident or what we did, but the speed with which a normal pleasant recreational dive turned an experienced and capable diver into a debilitated diver, in agony and requiring assistance underwater. At the time I had no idea what the problem was so I continued the ascent as opposed to descending to increase the pressure, which you would normally do to alleviate a reverse squeeze.

All is well and son is back to PS3, mobile and other teenage paraphanalia. This has taught me to think carefully before I solo dive again, I am not convinced this would have ended so well if we were not a buddy pair. I have learnt a reverse squeeze can literlly render a diver incapable of self sufficiency.

An interesting start to the 2009 dive season.

[Eeyore]

Originally Posted by Lynx737

I went for a dive today with my eldest son, he is 19 and qualified as a PADI instructor, technical diver and very fit. He has been diving from a young age and very capabable.

The dive was excellent considering the time of year, we went to 24m for a drift known as the canon ball run and we even found a canon ball (no lift bag) so left the ball. Usual mix of scallops, a few sleepy dogfish and a very dozy pipefish.

We planned to thumb the dive at 100 bar which we did after 26 minutes from 24m, even allowing +2m for the cold we were still inside table NDL and all computers showed >10mins to the NDL. We ascended at a leisurely 9-10m per minute with big smiles from the dive. At 15m and 28 minutes run time my son experienced a head pain that completely debilitated him and he cannot recall very much from that point until on the surface.

I controlled the ascent which took a further minute as I adjusted to 18m a minute as opposed to our normal 10m per minute and bypassed the safety stop. Standard kit off into boat (a rib) then onto O2 and assess. He was by now fully able to communicate and had severe head pain with some vertigo.

Our best guess was a reverse squeeze in the sinus, I also noted a lot of mucus dripping from the nose onto the O2 regulator as we headed back. A call to the duty dive doctor agreed with the symptoms and the profile, time and ascent rates meant a DCS or AGE were unlikely.

The rate of recovery also indicated that a reverse squeeze had occured - Son had a cold which cleared 2 weeks previous to this dive and no difficulty was expereinced in descent.

My point is not the incident or what we did, but the speed with which a normal pleasant recreational dive turned an experienced and capable diver into a debilitated diver, in agony and requiring assistance underwater. At the time I had no idea what the problem was so I continued the ascent as opposed to descending to increase the pressure, which you would normally do to alleviate a reverse squeeze.

All is well and son is back to PS3, mobile and other teenage paraphanalia. This has taught me to think carefully before I solo dive again, I am not convinced this would have ended so well if we were not a buddy pair. I have learnt a reverse squeeze can literlly render a diver incapable of self sufficiency.

An interesting start to the 2009 dive season.

Thanks for posting, glad everyone is ok

[Spacehopper]

Interesting and thought provoking post, glad it all worked out well.

Gareth

[Jay Tee]

We can all learn from this, thanks for sharing it with us.

Very glad you are both OK!

JT

[Kev]

Glad you are both OK.

[nitroxdiver001]

Good to hear you are both ok

[robertsT]

Thanks for posting and glad everyone is ok. I’ve had problems with reverse squeeze in the sinus before, although maybe not to the extent your son had today, normally just makes me feel a bit giddy and light headed. The first time it happened it really freaked me out and I didn’t know what was happening. However, now I’m aware of the problem if I feel it coming on I just stop the assent for a moment and drop back down a meter or so, which normally sorts it out.

T

[Buoyant Babe]

Thanks for sharing, glad you are both okay.

Helen xxx

[teddybeardiver]

Glad you are both okay.

Like you say you have to stay switched on for the whole dive.

[RogerViking]

jhc... very glad hes ok