Stage Markings and Procedures for Switching Regs/Gases - A Case of OxTox

GLOC · September 4th, 2006, 06:51 PM

The following post comes from one made on Ocean Discovery by Eggbird, I have spoken to the originator and asked to reproduce it here and he has said yes. The post is a very good example why stage marking and gas switching procedures are in place. Fortunately it does have a happy ending.

Post By Eggbird

The past 2 weeks I did a wreck diving trip in Italy (Liguria) with a couple of friends of mine.

The First week we did some nice wrecks near Santa Margherita Ligure (with Bruno) and this was lots of fun. We did wrecks in the 50 to 65 meter range, the Genova, Il KT di Sestri, Saint Naizaire.

The Next week we went to another location in Italy and met with another dive team to do some dives on the Amoco Milford Haven, The Pontida and the Re Faruk.

On the last day of the diving trip, I decided not to go, because my wife wanted me to join her on a trip to the city of Genova and see the Genova Aquarium.

The guys that went diving had decided to do a penetration of the upper part of The Haven, and not to go deeper than approx. 60M. 2 of the divers descended to 47M and went in the wreck at that depth.

They were diving with double 20's (litres) filled with Tx19/35 and 1 80Cuf EAN50, 1 80Cuf Oxygen and another 80Cuf with Tx19/35.

They decided to use the Tx19/35 in the 80Cuf as a stage, because after the trip they didn't have any use for it (we live in The Netherlands where we don't have any depths to use such gasses).

Inside the wreck they descended to a lower deck, but almost immediatly the front guy noticed his buddy wasn't following him anymore. He looked back and saw his fins against the roof of the wreck.

He reconed that something wasn't OK and immediatly turned around to be of assistance to his buddy.

He got the scare of his life. He saw his buddy convulsing, with the regulator removed from his mouth and his mask was filled with water by the contracting facial muscles.

He immediatly started to get his buddy out of the wreck. in which he was successfull. After that he located the other divers of the team, and one of them decided to bring him back to the surface.

At this point in time the body was lifeless and lacking any vital signs (pulse e.g.)

The guy ascended with the corpse an delivered him to the diving boat where they alarmed the authorities and started CPR procedures

After this he went back down, and met with his buddy to do a wet recompression starting from 60M and doubling all stop times. This was possible in his case due to the use of an inspiration rebreather (they are good for something after all :-) )

When the Medivac helicopter arrived they took the body and managed to reanimate they guy. How much luck can one have ?

The accident happened due to incorrect stage markings and even worse due to trying to indentify the correct gas by color coding of hoses. (before the dive the guy switched his EAN50 reg with the Tx19/35 reg.

So you can imagine how "happy" I was that I wasn't there but at the Genova Acquarium instead.

At this moment everyone of the team is safe back home, and there is a big discussion going on within the team over stage bottle marking procedures etc.

Me and my buddy are IANTD trained, but also DIR minded / trained (did DIR-F will do TECH-1 next year) and again we can see that that's the ONLY way to go ! Luckely I don't have to explain to my buddy how to mark stages and not use color coding etc.

So a nice trip with almost a horrible ending !

The procedures are there for a reason. Safe diving everyone.

Rob Dobson · September 4th, 2006, 08:56 PM

Great example of just how quickly things can go tits up!

Good work on the part of the surface support team and glad they all made it back.

limeyx · September 5th, 2006, 04:41 AM

Yeouch. Good to hear everyone made it out OK.

Mark Chase · September 5th, 2006, 09:53 AM

Surley if he was using the trimix stage instead of back gas he would be using it from the boat untill it ran out. So he didnt gas switch in the water he actualy jumped in using 50%.

The list of errors that led up to the tox is pretty big.

ATB

Mark Chase

WhatAKeepah · September 5th, 2006, 03:46 PM

That's some scary stuff! It's incredible that he lived through the ordeal. After they revived him, did he suffer from DCS or go to the pot?

Good info, thanks for the post!

Dive safe all!
- Alex

Martin Burnard · September 5th, 2006, 04:00 PM

No DCS and no trip to the pot would mean he leads a seriously charmed life!

graham_hk · September 6th, 2006, 03:34 AM

I doubt he had DCS. Think about it - short bottom time all on 50%

Mark Chase · September 6th, 2006, 10:26 AM

Quote: (Originally Posted by Martin Burnard)

No DCS and no trip to the pot would mean he leads a seriously charmed life!

And the 02 saturaton of his boddy tissues allowed him to live longer without breathing.

ATB

Mark Chase

Martin Burnard · September 6th, 2006, 12:28 PM

Still think he was lucky!!

It's certainly something I would not want to try for myself.

laertek · October 5th, 2006, 10:56 PM

He was really lucky,and it must be an habit to mark stages with decals instead of colours!

September 4th, 2006, 06:51 PM	#1 (permalink)
GLOC (Online) Moderator Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Fleet, Hants Posts: 1,963	Stage Markings and Procedures for Switching Regs/Gases - A Case of OxTox The following post comes from one made on Ocean Discovery by Eggbird, I have spoken to the originator and asked to reproduce it here and he has said yes. The post is a very good example why stage marking and gas switching procedures are in place. Fortunately it does have a happy ending. Post By Eggbird The past 2 weeks I did a wreck diving trip in Italy (Liguria) with a couple of friends of mine. The First week we did some nice wrecks near Santa Margherita Ligure (with Bruno) and this was lots of fun. We did wrecks in the 50 to 65 meter range, the Genova, Il KT di Sestri, Saint Naizaire. The Next week we went to another location in Italy and met with another dive team to do some dives on the Amoco Milford Haven, The Pontida and the Re Faruk. On the last day of the diving trip, I decided not to go, because my wife wanted me to join her on a trip to the city of Genova and see the Genova Aquarium. The guys that went diving had decided to do a penetration of the upper part of The Haven, and not to go deeper than approx. 60M. 2 of the divers descended to 47M and went in the wreck at that depth. They were diving with double 20's (litres) filled with Tx19/35 and 1 80Cuf EAN50, 1 80Cuf Oxygen and another 80Cuf with Tx19/35. They decided to use the Tx19/35 in the 80Cuf as a stage, because after the trip they didn't have any use for it (we live in The Netherlands where we don't have any depths to use such gasses). Inside the wreck they descended to a lower deck, but almost immediatly the front guy noticed his buddy wasn't following him anymore. He looked back and saw his fins against the roof of the wreck. He reconed that something wasn't OK and immediatly turned around to be of assistance to his buddy. He got the scare of his life. He saw his buddy convulsing, with the regulator removed from his mouth and his mask was filled with water by the contracting facial muscles. He immediatly started to get his buddy out of the wreck. in which he was successfull. After that he located the other divers of the team, and one of them decided to bring him back to the surface. At this point in time the body was lifeless and lacking any vital signs (pulse e.g.) The guy ascended with the corpse an delivered him to the diving boat where they alarmed the authorities and started CPR procedures After this he went back down, and met with his buddy to do a wet recompression starting from 60M and doubling all stop times. This was possible in his case due to the use of an inspiration rebreather (they are good for something after all :-) ) When the Medivac helicopter arrived they took the body and managed to reanimate they guy. How much luck can one have ? The accident happened due to incorrect stage markings and even worse due to trying to indentify the correct gas by color coding of hoses. (before the dive the guy switched his EAN50 reg with the Tx19/35 reg. So you can imagine how "happy" I was that I wasn't there but at the Genova Acquarium instead. At this moment everyone of the team is safe back home, and there is a big discussion going on within the team over stage bottle marking procedures etc. Me and my buddy are IANTD trained, but also DIR minded / trained (did DIR-F will do TECH-1 next year) and again we can see that that's the ONLY way to go ! Luckely I don't have to explain to my buddy how to mark stages and not use color coding etc. So a nice trip with almost a horrible ending ! The procedures are there for a reason. Safe diving everyone. __________________ Gareth Images of Life Photography DIR Team Foxturd Travels Underwater and Further Afar If you don't have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it? - Stephen King Last edited by GLOC; September 4th, 2006 at 07:29 PM. Reason: Tidy up...

September 5th, 2006, 04:41 AM	#3 (permalink)
limeyx(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 708	Yeouch. Good to hear everyone made it out OK. __________________ my divelog: http://www.mydivinglife.com/limeyx

September 5th, 2006, 09:53 AM	#4 (permalink)
Mark Chase(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Kent England Posts: 905	Surley if he was using the trimix stage instead of back gas he would be using it from the boat untill it ran out. So he didnt gas switch in the water he actualy jumped in using 50%. The list of errors that led up to the tox is pretty big. ATB Mark Chase __________________ The only DIR Inspiration diver in the village

September 5th, 2006, 04:00 PM	#6 (permalink)
Martin Burnard(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 580	No DCS and no trip to the pot would mean he leads a seriously charmed life! __________________ I once enjoyed a sado-masachistic frenzy of total tintintabulation leading to a state of metampsychosis... or did I make that up? www.bananafrogcars.co.uk

September 6th, 2006, 10:26 AM	#8 (permalink)
Mark Chase(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Kent England Posts: 905	Quote: (Originally Posted by Martin Burnard) No DCS and no trip to the pot would mean he leads a seriously charmed life! And the 02 saturaton of his boddy tissues allowed him to live longer without breathing. ATB Mark Chase __________________ The only DIR Inspiration diver in the village

September 4th, 2006, 08:56 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rob Dobson (Online) Chillin' with the ninjas Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Oxford Posts: 536	Great example of just how quickly things can go tits up! Good work on the part of the surface support team and glad they all made it back.

September 5th, 2006, 03:46 PM	#5 (permalink)
WhatAKeepah(Offline) New Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: La Maddalena, Italy Posts: 26	That's some scary stuff! It's incredible that he lived through the ordeal. After they revived him, did he suffer from DCS or go to the pot? Good info, thanks for the post! Dive safe all! - Alex

September 6th, 2006, 03:34 AM	#7 (permalink)
graham_hk(Offline) Pinoy ako pinoy Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: here, there and everywhere Posts: 779	I doubt he had DCS. Think about it - short bottom time all on 50%

September 6th, 2006, 12:28 PM	#9 (permalink)
Martin Burnard(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 580	Still think he was lucky!! It's certainly something I would not want to try for myself. __________________ I once enjoyed a sado-masachistic frenzy of total tintintabulation leading to a state of metampsychosis... or did I make that up? www.bananafrogcars.co.uk

October 5th, 2006, 10:56 PM	#10 (permalink)
laertek(Offline) New Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Rome Posts: 18	He was really lucky,and it must be an habit to mark stages with decals instead of colours!