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jhaaja · 3rd October 2005, 06:47

Here is a brief description of my accident from last July. The text is the same that I sent to DAN.

I was diving an Inspiration rebreather in Baltic Sea. The dive was trimix decompression dive with max depth of 74 meters. The dive went fine until the last minute of my 12 meters decompression stop. At the last minute of my 5minutes stop I noticed that something was going wrong. The symptom that I reacted to was contractions of my diaphgram muscle. At first I thought it was normal cold shivers, but it got stronger quite fast. Maybe the time frame from first small contraction to convulsion was about 30 –60 seconds. I had enough time to close the mouthpiece and go off the rebreather loop. I had a EAN50 stage with me, but the valve was closed. I also got the valve opened and the regulator hose behind my neck. I lost consciousness the same time I was trying to put the reg in my mouth.

My dive partner was close to me all the time and he noticed immediately that something was wrong when I came off the rebreather loop. After I convulsed and lost consciousness he waited for the convulsion to stop and then started to bring me to surface. He insured that my airways were nicely open and monitored that gas came out from my lungs. He also kept the reg against my mouth to prevent water entering my lungs. He got me to the surface in about 6 minutes.

On the boat we had good organization and my gear was removed quicly and given mouth-to-mouth because I was not breathing. After two blows I started to breathe. After that I was unconsciouss for about ten minutes. Then I woke up and was feeling quite good considering what had happened. By the time I woke up the sea rescue helicopter was on its way. I brethed oxygen on the surface from a scuba regulator. I also took one pill of aspirin and little bit of water. My lungs were basically clean off water. I never had to cough at all.

I and my dive buddy were flown to Turku for further treatment. There was a doctor in the helicopter and I was given some fluids to the vain. In Turku my lungs were x-rayd and some other basic tests. I never felt any DCI symptoms but I was put in to the chamber for safety. The treatment lasted 6-7 hours and I almoust convulsed again 6-7 times in the chamber. I noticed the same symptom in the chamber as in the water and took the O2 mask off before the convulsion. I was not able to breathe O2 at any depth (18m, 9m, 6m) for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time.

I was released from the hospital on the night of 5th of July. The doctor ordered me not to dive for the following three weeks.

When the convulsion came my CNS% was below 50% according to the calculations used today. The Rebreather was tested before and after the dive and it was working perfectly. The day before I had done a dive which lead to near 100% CNS%. The surface interval between the two dives was over 28 hours.

JH
Finland

3rd October 2005, 06:47	#1 (permalink)
jhaaja Custom Title Allowed! Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Finland Posts: 884	O2 convulsion Here is a brief description of my accident from last July. The text is the same that I sent to DAN. I was diving an Inspiration rebreather in Baltic Sea. The dive was trimix decompression dive with max depth of 74 meters. The dive went fine until the last minute of my 12 meters decompression stop. At the last minute of my 5minutes stop I noticed that something was going wrong. The symptom that I reacted to was contractions of my diaphgram muscle. At first I thought it was normal cold shivers, but it got stronger quite fast. Maybe the time frame from first small contraction to convulsion was about 30 –60 seconds. I had enough time to close the mouthpiece and go off the rebreather loop. I had a EAN50 stage with me, but the valve was closed. I also got the valve opened and the regulator hose behind my neck. I lost consciousness the same time I was trying to put the reg in my mouth. My dive partner was close to me all the time and he noticed immediately that something was wrong when I came off the rebreather loop. After I convulsed and lost consciousness he waited for the convulsion to stop and then started to bring me to surface. He insured that my airways were nicely open and monitored that gas came out from my lungs. He also kept the reg against my mouth to prevent water entering my lungs. He got me to the surface in about 6 minutes. On the boat we had good organization and my gear was removed quicly and given mouth-to-mouth because I was not breathing. After two blows I started to breathe. After that I was unconsciouss for about ten minutes. Then I woke up and was feeling quite good considering what had happened. By the time I woke up the sea rescue helicopter was on its way. I brethed oxygen on the surface from a scuba regulator. I also took one pill of aspirin and little bit of water. My lungs were basically clean off water. I never had to cough at all. I and my dive buddy were flown to Turku for further treatment. There was a doctor in the helicopter and I was given some fluids to the vain. In Turku my lungs were x-rayd and some other basic tests. I never felt any DCI symptoms but I was put in to the chamber for safety. The treatment lasted 6-7 hours and I almoust convulsed again 6-7 times in the chamber. I noticed the same symptom in the chamber as in the water and took the O2 mask off before the convulsion. I was not able to breathe O2 at any depth (18m, 9m, 6m) for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time. I was released from the hospital on the night of 5th of July. The doctor ordered me not to dive for the following three weeks. When the convulsion came my CNS% was below 50% according to the calculations used today. The Rebreather was tested before and after the dive and it was working perfectly. The day before I had done a dive which lead to near 100% CNS%. The surface interval between the two dives was over 28 hours. JH Finland
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