Human Error - Don't Blame The Rebreather

It all started as any recreational rebreather dive starts; got my gear ready the night before, ran the unit through the necessary checks, packed my bits and bobs, semi dry, towels, bottled water and headed off to sleep.

The next morning I woke up, loaded the car and drove to Cirkewwa, most of the usual suspects were already there or arriving, so between checking my unit and donning my semi dry I was chatting away with my friends and buddies.  Some divers had already entered the water, our small group would soon follow suit and dive the Rozi wreck.  

I finished my positive and negative checks and was about to continue further down my check list when I clearly remember that one of the divers asked me a question about his gear, I went over and we discussed the issue.  Once I returned to my car I put on my unit, grabbed my fins and gloves, locked the car and hobbled to the entry point to get in the water and relieve my back and legs of the strain of carrying a rebreather.

I wore my fins and with the help of another diver done my bailout tanks (air and nitrox), I grabbed my mouthpiece, I signalled that I would jump in the water and so I did.

The water was a bit choppy and I was struggling to clip the bailout back clips to the unit but eventually I managed, always breathing through the mouthpiece not to swallow any water.  I recall feeling slightly “funny”, at the time I thought I was sleepy and kept telling myself that I shouldn’t be feeling sleepy, I was in cold water about to start the dive – I made myself snap out of it … there was an instance when someone spoke to me, to reply, I removed my mouthpiece and then replaced it again …

That’s it …

My next memory is faintly hearing people call my name, a lot of shouting and seeing myself floating face up in the water (at the time I thought, where the hell is my rebreather?).  One of the divers was holding  my neck and head to ensure I was breathing, while a buddy who is also a doctor was shouting “Karla come back with us” and slapping my face … I was towed to the inlet, and carried by several divers to the concrete platform … I saw all this but I couldn't control anything of what was being done to me and what was happening … I felt extremely scared.

The divers who rescued me administered  oxygen and I recall I was feeling dozy and nauseous, which is normal for me when I breathe 100% oxygen at the surface – I tried to remove the oxygen mask several times and I tried to speak but I couldn't formulate the words, the level of fear doubled … I was coming and going I wasn't all there, all I could hear were snippets of words, "ambulance", "conscious", "oxygen", I was stripped from my dive suit and covered with towels still breathing oxygen and still thrashing about trying to get the oxygen mask off [I was later told].

The ambulance arrived and the staff loaded me onto a stretcher and off we whizzed to hospital … I remember being wet and very cold – the ambulance nurse used up all the blankets they had to try and keep me warm.  The nurse informed me that the oxygen in my blood stream had dropped, he kept asking me to speak but I couldn't formulate words the few that came out were slurred speech – I cried all the way to hospital, thinking to myself that was it …

I was rushed into the A&E department at the hospital, the nurses present were told by the ambulance staff that it was a diving related accident and they gave them my vitals … a lovely doctor came to see me and ask me some questions, I was feeling very disoriented at this point, my speech started to return to me … I forced myself to think how I had ended up in the horrible position – what had I done or worse what hadn't I done???

I was soon joined by a couple of friends from Cirkewwa who brought my clothes, personal effects and some towels.  They recounted what they witnessed – it was exactly as I had seen it … I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I had seen my rescue unfold and I was helpless.

Eventually after a lot of thinking it started to came back to me, the moment I was setting and preparing my unit I stopped on several occasions throughout the tests and once I had donned my unit and made my way to the exit point, I hadn’t turned it on !!!

I jumped into the water with a rebreather that was turned OFF, the breaths I was inhaling through the mouthpiece where not being injected with fresh o2.

Over a span of a number of hours the doctor took numerous tests, bloods, pressure, imaging and a brain scan, I was given several doses of saline solution via IV and eventually towards the end of the day I was discharged.

The guilt I felt after this ordeal was immense I had nearly lost my life over a moment of carelessness and distraction and I had scared the rest of the divers who witnessed the incident – Days later I met all those involved in my rescue and thanked them personally, I also explained what lead to my loss of consciences, explaining the importance of all the tests involved in setting up of a rebreather.

I don’t think I will ever fully put this incident behind me – I was lucky my buddies found me floating face down in the water when they did, more time in that state could have given me brain damage or worse still, killed me.

The following weekend I made it a point to get back in the water, to do an easy and pleasant dive – diving is my way of escaping the hustle and bustle of my work week, of personal stress, of worry and tension.  I am worry free when I’m diving I’m thinking only of my unit, my safety that of my buddies and the dive we are undertaking.

I always say that keeping rescue skills fresh is necessary – good thing that as a group of friends we believe in the same mantra and practise and re-do our rescue circuit frequently.

This was not an emergency drill but a real life incident – they didn’t call the customary “Pizza Pizza” which we use when we are training not to alert passers-by or other divers but “call an ambulance”.

I will never stop being thankful for still being around and grateful to those present on the day for saving my life and bringing me back.

Gone diving

The preparation for a dive is nearly as exciting as the actual dive …. I often say this statement and I believe it.

Usually I receive notification of an organised dive in the start of the week, for the dive to take place over the following weekend.  This gives me something to look forward to during my work week and gives me ample time to plan and get my gear together for another underwater adventure!

Since Zeus is behaving very well lately I try not to miss out on any dives unless I have more important commitments planned, hmmm what commitments?  I immediately get on with making arrangements with one of my dive buddies who either dive open or closed circuit.  We discuss dive plans and what gases we will be using for the specific dive. Following that I arrange to have my tanks blended or topped up as necessary, I analyse and label them.  If I’m diving beyond the recreational limits, deeper than 45 meters then I will usually go for a 10/50 Trimix as my diluent gas, 60% Nitrox & Air as a bailouts.  For more demanding dives beyond 75 meters, I will carry a third bailout tank with a suitable Trimix for that depth, which will be used in an emergency until I can switch to air and Nitrox at shallower depths.

Following my training and out of habit I share my dive plan with my buddy/s to make sure we are all on the same page, planned dive time, max depth, available gases, plus a contingency plan, 5 minutes longer 5 meters deeper.  This is usually done over email or Facebook.

Come Friday, I get my rebreather put together, the unit would have spent a week dismantled and airing out.  I follow my check list to a tee; checking if I need to change the Sofnolime, I check the units electronics (batteries, cells and other hardware/software checks), I make sure I have the diluent I’m using set up on the Vision Electronics. Finishing off with a positive and negative check to make sure all connections are sealed tight.  I leave the unit on negative while I turn my attention to the other kit.

I pack my semi dry, booties, socks, gloves and a clean towel.  Then I turn to my bucket of other accessories; check my spare mask, knife, slate & depth timer (with plans written and taped up), reel & smb, torch, fins, regulators for bailout tanks, weights, back up dive computer, my Liquivision XEO (with the dive gas selected and batteries checked) and bezel.   I fill a bottle of water with some soapy water for easy donning my semi, that way I don’t have to struggle, the suit slips on like a glove.  I put a couple of bottles of drinking water in the freezer, and pack my wind breaker, towel and a spare swim costume in my dry bag. Last but not least I check that the electronics spares box (batteries & cells) and tool box are all in order.

The unit is purged from negative and if the dive is happening Saturday I pack everything in the car (rebreather, wet box with suit etc, accessories bucket, dry bag, tool box, analyser (just in case, I always re-analyse the cylinders before a dive), 2 x 3 litre tanks (rebreather) and 2 or 3 x 7 litre bailout cylinders), everything fits – I have a system!  The car spends the night safely locked up in the garage in anticipation of an early morning departure.

Come morning, I have a cereal bar washed down with some fresh coffee, if I dare, since if the sea is a little choppy I know I will be turning fifty shades of green by the time we reach our location!  If thats the case I have nothing except a glass of water.  Take the bottles from the freezer, maybe pick up a snack from the cupboard for later and off I go.  For the deeper wreck dives the boat usually leaves from the South of the island so that’s around 40 minute drive at 07:00 on a weekend, it’s rare to come across traffic at that hour and it’s a pleasant and relaxing drive with the right music.

Once on site, I greet the team - if there are any other early risers and start unloading the car, rebreather, tanks, bucket, suit, water, dry bag all check!  Once the tanks are installed on the rebreather and the bailout tanks have the regulators installed, I run through the rebreather check list one more time, better safe than sorry then I’m good to go – 20 or 30 minutes before the boat is scheduled to pick us up I get into my semi dry.  By this time the sun is up and it’s hot, but getting into a wetsuit which is soaked in soapy water isn’t all bad since I find it keeps my body temperature low.

Before a dive there is the usual banter from the other divers, there is always someone with a new piece of equipment to show and tell.  At the moment everyone is flashing new Shearwater Petrels …. Nice piece of kit I must admit.  Once the boat berths and the skipper greets us all and gives us our places in buddy pairs, we start to haul all the gear on board in an organised fashion (not).  But eventually we all get there and everything is in order.

We get our briefing from the skipper; only to jump in as buddy teams, don’t tug at the shot rope, once surfaced, signal and wait by the shot rope buoy for pick up, and finally the bit I like most, wait for the life ring and clip your stages before being towed back to the boat …. Ah to rid myself of the extra weight before boarding the boat, bliss!

Now for the all-important part …. The actual dive.

Diver teams start donning their equipment and getting ready to jump in after the skipper finds the dive site or wreck and sets up the shot and deco ropes.  We jump off in pairs on the skippers’ signal, swim to the marker buoy, make sure everything is ok and we are comfortable, signal descent, acknowledge with an OK and deflate wings to start the descent.

Once beneath the waves I have two concerns, is the shot leading to the wreck? and is my rebreather performing; are the cells reading ok?  I keep an eye on my buddy whilst we descend to 60 or 70 meter.  This takes some time (3/4 minutes) especially if there is a current.  Once we reach the wreck, I take note of the location of the shot. After that it’s all about exploration; if this is my first visit I try to take it all in, if I’ve already been to the site, I usually try to head to parts of the wreck that I haven’t fully explored.  It’s amazing no matter how many dives I make on the same wrecks, I always see something new, something I missed on previous occasions or something that another diver uncovered or moved on the site.  The wrecks that are found in the southern waters of the island are either World War I or II, they vary in size but for sure they never disappoint!

Lately I’ve been working on improving my trim, while swimming around I try to keep my trim in mind, challenging myself to penetrate tighter spaces than I would normally consider and minimally disturbing the environment/bottom.

Time is always flying when you’re having fun!  Soon it’s the 15 or 20 minute mark and we need to signal to return to the shot unless we are further away in that case we would be on our way earlier than the planned ascent time.  Once at the shot we start the long decompression to the surface.  Deco is usually around 30/40 minutes before we are bobbing at the surface waiting to be picked up.  During the ascent I keep close enough to the shot that I can grab the rope in case of emergency, if there is a current then I ring my thumb and fore finger, during this part of the dive the rebreather is trying to keep to the set point of 1.3, while I’m ascending to shallower depths and the existing content in the counterlungs is expanding rapidly.  I remain focused on reading the cells, monitoring my partial pressure and exhaling occasionally to keep a minimum loop volume and the current deco stop limits and keeping eye contact with my buddy. When we reach our 9 meter mark, we usually swim off to one of the shorter ropes on the deco station, where deco is continued.  As buddy pairs or team members we like to stay close at this stage, since anything can happen during deco as much as while performing the dive at the bottom.

Once the decompression is complete, and so is my buddy’s we remove the back clips of our bailout cylinders, signal to surface, acknowledge and surface.  At the surface we inflate our wings and signal the skipper that we are OK.  Most recently I have adopted a different method to feed my wing, I am using the Air bailout tank, so while the boat is approaching I close the tank, purge the regulator and unclip the LPI from my wing.  I have tried on several occasions to undo the LPI with an open cylinder but it’s a skill I have yet to master! Once the skipper throws in the life ring both tanks are ready to be clipped on, as soon as both divers have ridded themselves of the cylinders, the skipper pulls us back towards the boat.

Back on the boat, I turn off my unit, unclip all the clips and tie it securely it to the bungees, I collect my fins which would have been removed earlier by the skipper and stuff everything in my bucket.  I’m usually bursting to pee …. this would be a good time to get back in the water and relieve myself. AS buddies we all give a helping hand to help the other divers back to the boat, thus relieving the skipper from having to tow each diver/team back.  After the roll call is complete we head back to shore.  Everyone is talking over everyone else, “did you see the grouper?” “did you see the torpedo?” “what about the huge moray eel hidden in the loo?”

Most of the time everything is bigger and larger than reality …. But it’s not our fault, everything appears large underwater, it’s a fact!

Back to shore, all the divers unload their gear, and bring their cars around to load and head off for a cold Cisk or Shandy.

Until the next one....