Question for the experts

[Tiki_Man]

I have a question about "bad air".

 

Strange thing happened this last week. My wife and I dove Western Carib. I went 4 straight days ~ Cayman, Coz, Costa Maya and then Roatan (2 tanks each day). My wife went Coz, 1 tank in Costa Maya and then 2 tanks in Roatan. Not going to name the Operator but here is what happened on our last day.

 

First dive on last, I enter the water, get to 30 feet and have this really really wierd feeling, almost panic, I did NOT want to be diving, was ready to signal my wife and the DM that I was going up. Pushed through it, calmed down and then had a nice dive. We went out over a nice wall, very little current, 54 minutes. My wife had a great dive, kept giving me double OK's. When we surfaced she asked me what was wrong, because something did not seem right about me. I just laughed it off.

 

I have 114 logged dives, OW certification but lots of time under water and I have NEVER EVER had that feeling. It was a little strange that when I rigged my gear that I had almost 3600 lbs in a standard tank (just thought I was really lucky). Guessed that maybe I had some bad food the night before.

 

After surface interval, my wife was the "lucky winner" of a tank (that had been next to my first tank) with 3550 lbs. She was looking forward to the dive, was first in the water. We get to about 40 feet, going along a reef wall about 5 minutes in and all of a sudden she is grabbing me and signaling UP UP and that her mask is full. I am looking at her and her mask in completely empty. (side note, another person on the dive who is a DM, noticed this entire exchange and was banging his tank to get the DM's attention - thanks Ken). The DM immediately came back to us as I was trying to calm my wife. She was NOT happy so we went to surface, he signaled the boat, waited for it to get close then went back down to the group under to finish the dive (no problems, this is exactly what he should have done).

 

My wife was PANICKED. I have never seen her like that before EVER. She has 46 dives and is a very good calm diver but completely freaked out. Back on the boat she was fine but still looked "out of it". We waited for the rest to finish the dive, gathered our stuff and sent back to the ship. She was still not feeling very good and the next morning she was terrible. Finally after lots of water (maybe dehydration) and some plain food she was good to go again.

 

Alcohol was not the issue, and we had plenty of sleep the night before, but I am wondering if she got a tank of "bad air". I have never experienced anything like this. Would love to hear someone's opinions. Again, I will not name the dive shop but just wondering if anyone has any thoughts?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[WillieD13]

"Bad Air" seems unlikely. If it contained some kind of "pollutant", the effect would have been continual, or worsening throughout the dive. Whose regulators were you using? In both cases you mentioned the tanks being fuller than you normally see, though well within the 4400 PSI rating on a lot of tanks. Is it possible that the regulators had some minor malfunction at the higher pressure, resulting in Hyperoxia? Disorientation is one symptom.

[Tiki_Man]

"Bad Air" seems unlikely. If it contained some kind of "pollutant", the effect would have been continual, or worsening throughout the dive. Whose regulators were you using? In both cases you mentioned the tanks being fuller than you normally see, though well within the 4400 PSI rating on a lot of tanks. Is it possible that the regulators had some minor malfunction at the higher pressure, resulting in Hyperoxia? Disorientation is one symptom.

 

Willie, thank you for the response. They were the Dive Shops Reg's. Hyperoxia sounds like a possibility or it could have just been a regular ole Panic attack, but she has never had one before.

 

Thanks

 

Mark