Rebreather Incident 2 - Incident

This video made by SKY news shows real footage of an incident where a rebreather diver suffers from Carbon Dioxide poisoning. The video takes the viewer through the incident, explaining how it came about and the lessons that can be learnt. Whilst the video is primarily aimed at rebreather divers, there are issues such as bail-out gas consumption, team size and rescue that may be useful to all divers.

[@ironDsteele]

Moral of the story: it doesn't pay to be cheap especially when your life is on it.

[@zaboka99]

This is where humility comes in and one ends the dive at the first sign of trouble especially with a rebreather. The other divers were certified divers, regardless of experience level they clearly knew and saw something was wrong thus the dive should have ended immediately, just my thought.

[@sharkdinner]

This "widely used practise" seems to do a good job of hiding. I've never seen it, nor has anyone else I've asked.

[@sebastianstifter1112]

Shouldn't there have been a warning via the HUD or wrist mounted computer to tell him something wasn't working? Or was this before they became mandatory?

[@macallanvintage]

A very silly mistake. I have been obsessed with very regular, very precise replacement of Sofnolime in my own rebreather scrubber for a long time. It's shocking how even the experienced tech divers don't know how to replace the this scrubber material which is so critical. Fill 1/3 with new material...shake it. Fill another 1/3...shake and fill the final 1/3 and shake. Do NOT underfill or overfill. It's your life that's at stake here....so learn how to maintain your scrubber professionally.

[@rmeglath]

When diving a normal open circuit scuba tank all of the gas inhaled is exhaled into the surrounding water. The air we breathe is about 21% O2 when we exhale there is still about 16% O2 left which is then wasted. On a rebreather the exhalation is captured, the CO2 is chemically removed in the "scrubber" and additional O2 is added (it's a bit more complicated). The scrubber's life is limited as is the gas in the diluent and oxygen cylinders. Max time on that unit is about 4-6 hours I think.

[@97Arran]

Lucky it was only 20m if it was 60 with no stages i rekon he would not be here today for sure.

[@ChristelVinot]

I watched a documentary about underwater cave diving, and they used rebreathers so they could travel farther, because they last waaaaaaay longer. And when in an underwater passageway with rock for a ceiling and no way to surface, that's really important.

[@earlgrey2130]

my guess would be the extended bottom time. If they are down there for a couple of hours they would've needed to carry many cylinders of nitrox with them.. too much baggage. Plus the Reb is more comfortable.

[@jongmassey]

He's lucky he managed to bail out onto OC. BOVs are essential - if you're hyperventilating due to a CO2 hit, there's no way you're going to be able to switch regs!

[@deepseadave7036]

In basic terms, yes. Deep divers who use expensive trimix (a mixture of O2, nitrogen and helium) like them for this reason as they are efficient with gas. They offer many other advantages too, such as less decompression time. They are also bubble free (apart from on the ascent when you have to dump gas) which is why they are popular with underwater cameramen as the lack of bubbles means they don't spook wildlife, create noise or get in the way of the camera lens.

[@claytonhorn1145]

They should have performed a controled ascent straight away

[@myxoo]

due breathing rate's is 3 litres of bailout is not enough for comfortable ascent... think about equipment

[@Tommo69O2]

Started using rebreathers in 1959, O2 and nitrox, Pendulam breathing, and we knew the limitations then on proto. Would like to know what the gas mix is, used in the movie. Seems as if training has slipped, some of the professional statements were a bit strange as well. And what happened to emergency surfacing?

[@proaudio55]

All you haters need to shut up. It’s sooooo easy to sit in your comfortable room, you're warm, dry, breathing good air then look at a CCR video and hurl criticism… You try breathing toxic air, at depth, and show us how it's done. This chap was improperly trained and it nearly killed him. Fortunately he had enough sense to bailout before it was too late.

[@BOROZ28]

WOW I can't believe that they thought that, especially when he used big bucks to train. It's a very serious mistake by the way and it's nothing magic. I dove re-breather(s) many years ago, it was in my student years. I never went for fancy training in the Island either bought expensive units-to poor for that at the time :).My first re-breather was an old SOVIET unit I self learned using old manuals from 50-70's(UK USSR USA GERMAN) and all of them thought not to do what he done.

[@ScarryScraggy]

So basically, a rebreather just lengthens the time of an oxygen

[@iliasasdf]

Why didn't the CO2 levels drop?

[@Dreaded88]

Now imagine what would've happened if he mistook Kitty Litter for the Soda-Lime for the rebreather!?! Just kidding, but seriously folks: is there anyway to take used Soda-lime, and recharge it?