Burp 109.

[Irondiver]

I am posting this for informational purposes. This actually happened and in the end it was a chain of mishaps.

It was late in December in Michigan's North. A few of us dive buddies decided to go on a night dive in Torch Lake. One lesser experienced diver wanted to go deep. Despite all of our nay saying he was insisting to get down to depth. My senior dive buddy was sporting a ton of dives and I had so many I thought it to be odd to be out of water. The rookie, had been diving with us on a bunch of shallow drops. He was so hungry for depth it was insane. (We learned quite a bit from this night.)
Its nearly 12am, we make the drive to the lake. All the gear loaded and ready to go. We have sleds to pull the gear to the water. Nearly 1 and half miles from the vehicles. The moon is full the air is about 30 degrees, water is around 28 degrees. We walk out to the point sleds in tow. Everyone is happy there is no sign of ice and thankfully, it stays that way.
We rig up and get ourselves ready for a steep but sedate descent to where the new diver is comfortable. Both of us senior dive buddies are telling him over and over, we stop before you get uneasy. The cold adds to the narc'ed effect. Night, doesnt help either. So we are being super safe at this time.
Geared up we walk out and follow the steep drop off downward. As we think about all that has been check and double check some more, we slowly and methodically start going down. Checking the rookie constantly.
At 109' we noticed bubbles coming from his regulator. It was a very light free flow. At this point in he got nervous, we started to head for the surface immediately. He sucked in a burp and couldnt get it out at 109'.
Neither of us knew this. This is something you never do, never. As we begin our ascent figuring the only problem was a free flowing regulator, we are noticing him panicking. We try to calm him, unaware of what is really happening.
The senior dive buddy and he grab each other and started going up. I see them attempt to swim up and then someone added a ton of air to the bcd. Next thing the start going up a little fast, senior dive buddy dumps the air and they start falling, they are finning, and falling. Once they hit the bottom, panic hits the rookie. He fins for his life, the senior is holding on with all hes got. They start flying for the surface and out of my sight as I ascend. I am ascending at a proper rate. While they are racing to the surface.
Once to the surface, the senior has the rookie in tow. The rookie is flat on his back and screaming in pain. I surface and ask what is going on.
Rookie tells us his stomach is full of air. Hes hurting really bad. The senior for some aparent reason freaks out and is asking what to do. I quickly assess the situation and tell them to calm down, and insist due to the air and rapid ascent, we need to get down and decompress and get the air out of his gut.
At this point the rookie's reg straightened out and hes calmer. I pull him down to 20 ft. We sit there and just maintain. After a short while his regulator acted up again and I gave him my 7' octo. Hes starting to act uncomfortable, so we start ascending after about 5 minutes. Hes burping really bad and almost constantly. So now hes flying for the surface and I am trying to hold him as we go up. He has my octo, I dont want him to suck water at this point. At about 15 ft from the surface he breaks free of me and runs out the octo. Hes about 7 ft of the surface and the octo has chunks flying out it. The regulator pops out of his mouth and hes on his own.
We all hit the surface and again hes yelling in pain. We head for shore and drag him with us. We rip off all the gear and the senior dive buddy runs to get help. I am left with a 1.5 mile hike up an icy path that is nothing but a hill. I am towing the rookie who is laying on a sled up this icy hill knowing, I am in danger myself of getting bent now. After a long hard run, I get to the surface to a ambulance crew dumbfounded as to what to do. I had just read an article concerning the bends and told the crew he needed oxygen and to be laying on his side. They rushed him to the hospital.
Once at the hospital, the had to stab his stomach with a tube to vent out all the air. He said the air leaked for several minutes. The doctors said he had air all over in his chest cavity.
After it was all over, the rookie, clung to the senior dive buddy, and refused to talk to me. He was a ego maniac, and his failure and the fact that I had to rescue him, left him not liking me because of the huge ego.
So that was his last dive with me and my dive buddy. We had warned him over and over and he let his over inflated ego determine his fate. We urged over and over not to do it. He kept saying with or without us, he was going to do it. We felt the saafest thing to do was to take him down in a controlled atmosphere, two experienced divers and one rookie, what could go wrong.
The moral of the story and the lesson learned is this. Do not let anyone do anything unsafe for you or them and do not let peer pressures or egos be the reason you die or get injured. Thankfully everyone is safe and ok. However this could of turned into a horrible trajedy that would of been devastating to all.
Do not dive outside of your comfort zone. Do not take rookies to places they do not belong. No matter how they urge you. Be safe for you and them. Burn up a bunch of dives before you go deep, and dont assume your safe. Once your deep, your in the land or no return. A breath hold may not get you to the surface alive.
This is a great hobby. Its not a great way to die. Live a long life. Be safe.

[Cheddarchick]

Thanks for posting

[JCAT]

Perhaps I'm missing something in translation here..

At 109' we noticed bubbles coming from his regulator. It was a very light free flow. At this point in he got nervous, we started to head for the surface immediately. He sucked in a burp and couldnt get it out at 109'.
Neither of us knew this. This is something you never do, never.

Please define burp.

thanks

[Irondiver]

He sucked air into his stomach to help the air already in his stomach to burp out.

[JCAT]

Originally Posted by Irondiver

He sucked air into his stomach to help the air already in his stomach to burp out.

That is interesting indeed. Thanks for the clarification.

[bennerman]

Originally Posted by JCAT

That is interesting indeed. Thanks for the clarification.

[Non Serious Comment] Burp 109, home of all your favourite classic rock! [/Non Serious Comment]

When you say that, do you mean swallowing air, the way we make ourselves burp on the surface? I do think it is a good idea to go down with an idiot like that. If you didn't, he would have died and you would have felt like crap (even though it wouldn't have been your fault).

[navyhmc]

I can see this went very bad, glad to know that you and the other diver are okay-Sounds like he had more going on than a bad burp. I am thinking that he had a cardiac sphincter (the muscles that keep us from regurg after eating) spasm that trapped the air. I will speculate that he did lose some of the air in his gut as from 100', he could easily have ruptured his stomach and had all sorts of problems.

When you say that they had to "Stab his stomach with a tube" and that he had air all over his chect cavity, sounds like he also had a pnuemothorax that was going tension. Was the tube in his chest? Normally, they will insert a nasogastric tube to relieve stomach pressure.

[Splitlip]

Originally Posted by Irondiver

He sucked air into his stomach to help the air already in his stomach to burp out.

I guess.... Still sounds odd. But then I have heard of people who can belch at will by swallowing air. But I have never known any.

I imagine this normally would not be an issue as I suspect most people don't give belching that much thought.

[Splitlip]

Originally Posted by bennerman

[Non Serious Comment] Burp 109, home of all your favourite classic rock! [/Non Serious Comment]

When you say that, do you mean swallowing air, the way we make ourselves burp on the surface?

Oh no!

What do you mean "we"? Do you have a mouse in your pocket? See my post above.

[Irondiver]

Yeah, like you would on the surface trying to make yourself burp. Not a good idea with compressed air. The guy was an ego maniac, and thought he was bullet proof. It was an awakening he couldnt handle.