Most of the articles that I write have a bit of humour in them, this really does not, it is the most serious diving accident I have been involved in, and if I was honest I have probably have not got over it, so in a way this is a bit indulgent, and possibly a way of getting rid of demons.
It is important to understand the level of trust my buddy and I have in each other, for a number of years she and I were partners on the Regional Crime Squad, in fact we were partners on the firearms unit within that squad, our kit bag bore the label Distemper and Makeshift, (you will work it out).
On those units you either trust each other with your life, or you don’t remain partners.
So she is a qualified diver, and had made a number of dives beyond 30 mtrs. It was however the first time we had dived together.
It was a lovely summers day in Lanzarote, the water was clear and calm. We were going to dive a location known as the Blue Hole. As the name implies. this is a hole in the sea bed at around 17mtrs and is about 5 mtrs across. It goes down vertically, then turns horizontal and exits on the reef wall around 30mtrs.
I went through first, then watched her come through. As she exited, she hit her head quite hard on the reef. “No problem” I thought, “she can deal with that.” I turned to look out to sea, then looked back after only a few seconds. She was clearly in trouble, and indicated to me that she couldn’t breath properly and that she was going to surface. Unknown to me when she hit her head, it dislodged her mouthpiece and she swallowed lots of water into her left lung.
She went for the surface fast! My first mistake was going after her to stop her. I knew that we were below the lanes where the large glass bottom boats come through.
I got her and then tried to empty both our jackets, but I failed and I realized we were coming up faster than our bubbles. All I could think to do was breath out as much as I could, and then we hit the surface at such speed that we came out of the water to our knees!.
My buddy then said she had a pain in the left side of her chest and could not breath properly. I looked around and saw we were quite far away from the Dive school, but there were some restaurants with a small beach below about 200 mtrs away. I turned back to my buddy and saw she was no longer breathing and had cyanosis of the lips and ear lobes. I spent a moment pondering whether to tow her or get her breathing and realized I had no choice. I managed to get her breathing, but she was still a terrible colour. By the way, heart massage in the water is not possible, but the kiss of life is.
So I started the tow screaming for help and giving the emergency signal. The situation then hit me like a thunderbolt, I realized that if I got a DCS at this point we would both die.
As I got near the beach, our luck changed. my buddy was still unconscious, however some local lads swam out and took her from me and on the beach was a nurse on holiday, a local doctor out walking his dog, and people from Safari Diving with oxygen kit. the Paramedics arrived within minutes and my buddy, after treatment to remove the water, and a stay in hospital was ok.
Lessons learnt? You bet! Never will I go up after someone rushing to the surface. I will ascend at the proper rate, or will I?
And never, ever ever, let your buddy have a cheese and pickle sandwich before a dive. If you have to give mouth to mouth to them, as they start breathing again, the cheese and pickle do not taste good regurgitated.
Medical Mick
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