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Chapter 7 — 5
Consider the following scene, which has been gleaned from several diving fatalities, to illustrate
some of the factors contributing (in
italics
) to a panic-related death.
Case history.
Harry was a recently qualified diver who had
borrowed
equipment to undertake an open ocean dive in an
unfamiliar
area. His borrowed wetsuit was a little
tight
around his chest, restricting his breathing.
He decided to use two
extra weights
on his weight belt to help him descend in the ocean conditions, which were
somewhat foreign to him. He was
inexperienced
at open ocean diving and the conditions were regarded as
marginal so he felt a little
uneasy
about the dive.
His companions were more experienced than him and he was unsure of his ability to make his
air supply
last as
long as his buddies. After all, he did not want to be the first to run out of air and force his buddies to shorten their
dive.
During the dive he was sure he was using more air than the others but he had no way of checking this as his
borrowed scuba set did not have a
contents gauge
.
He became a little more
apprehensive
. They seemed to have swum a long way both from the dive boat and the
shore. But he did not want to
inconvenience
his buddy or
embarrass
himself by ascending and checking his
distance from shore or inquire about his buddies air supply. He had no idea how much air he had left but he felt
that there probably wasn't much.
He became a little more
anxious
and his
breathing rate
increased. He noted some
restriction
to breathing. Was
this just
resistance in his regulator
or was he now running out of air?
He activated his reserve valve. Perhaps this would improve the restricted gas flow. It didn't.
There was a tidal current running, which slowed their progress to the planned end of the dive – the safe exit point.
He was hoping that his companions were also running
out of air
, as he appeared to be.
He was becoming more
anxious
. His heart was pounding and his
breathing rate
was increasing. It was becoming
harder to get sufficient air from his demand valve.
The difficulty in obtaining enough air settled the matter. He decided to get to the
surface
, fast. In spite of his rapid
ascent, he still did not seem to be getting more air from his demand valve. He must be out of gas.
He burst through the surface, gasping for breath. He wrenched off his
face mask
and
demand valve
and gasped
air.
The water was choppy and waves washed over his face. He kicked hard with his
fins
to stay on the surface. One of
the ill-fitting borrowed fins came off. A wave washed over his face and he
inhaled water
and started coughing. It
was a real
struggle
to stay on the surface, he was becoming
exhausted
. He wondered how long he could keep this
up. He tried to keep his head well above the waves, but could not.
His buddy noticed he was missing and after a brief search, surfaced. Harry was no where to be seen. An organised
search later found his body on the bottom, immediately below where he had surfaced.
His
weight belt
was still fastened, his
buoyancy vest
uninflated. There was ample air in his cylinder and testing of
his demand valve revealed normal functioning, but demonstrating the usual resistance with high gas flows.
The autopsy report read "
drowning
". The
real cause was
"
death from panic".