Once, heading a Night Dive off Fethard-On-Sea, Wexford, Ireland, myself and two trainees surfaced close to shore after the dive. We finned to shore until we could walk on the rocky, sandy bottom. I instructed my trainees to keep their fins on and walk BACKWARD towards the shore. I, removing my fins, remained in back of them, walking FORWARD so I could observe my trainees... (You can't walk forward in Fins/Flippers...)
All of a sudden, a BIG FREAK waved crashed upon us, knocking us over. My trainees were able to right themselves by finning toward shore, BUT, the wave knocked me forward and then, pulled me BACKWARD with the swell.
Still wearing my aqualung rig, the bottle wedged between two rocks. As the wave subsided, I attempted to stand up. I was stuck fast. The tide was coming IN at this point. As I took a breath, (I was not using my regulator at this point) a SECOND wave enveloped me and I drew in a lungful of sea water. I was only in about three feet of water, but as I spluttered, yet ANOTHER incoming wave covered me. I realized I was drowning.
I did not panic. In fact, the feeling I most remember is one of EXTREME EMBARRASSMENT. I was going to DIE on my first ever leading night-dive. Everybody would think I was an asshole. By now, the incoming tide was keeping me entirely below the waves.
Training somehow kicked in. (I certainly wasn't conscious of doing what I did...) As yet another big wave covered me, I cracked the emergency bottle on my FENZY life-jacket. The jacket fully inflated and POPPED me to the surface, plucking the jammed cylinder from its trap in the rocks. I stumbled to my feet and, coughing and spluttering, made my way to the on-shore party.
(The FREAKY thing is that my two trainees were so excited at joining the other dive teams already on shore, they hadn't even noticed I had gone under. Because it was night, the dive team approaching BEHIND us had not noticed my predicament)
I REALLY could have died!
The entire incident, I guess, lasted less than 5 minutes. But that's a long time to be pretty much unable to draw breath.
When I remember the incident, the STRANGEST thing was the CALM I felt when I thought, "I'm FUCKED!" (It speaks VOLUMES as to the proper training I had received that I reacted UNCONSCIOUSLY to perform the correct maneuver appropriate to the situation.)
xx SF
A codicil!
There are some experienced Scuba Divers here! They'll say, "WHY didn't you locate your Reg?" OR, "Why didn't you use your life-jacket mouth-piece as a source of air?" "WHY didn't you use the emergency whistle attached to the FENZY to attract the attention of the shore-party?"
None of those things occurred to me!
Well Stephanie at least you were doing something you love and were helping others learn
I've had multiple near death experiences most related to alcohol or possibly illicit substances...playing "dodge the car" on a multi-lane highway, car racing, car surfing, assorted car accidents and near misses, falls in the Canadian wild while hiking alone, pinned against a rockface by a train 4000 ft underground, the list is endless. I can't say I've ever has my life flash by in those final moments but you nailed it with "CALM" A number of times I have experienced that calm...like the end was inevitable and I was greeting it with an innocent wonder....I think maybe its your inner survival mode kicking in that forces you to be calm and think of a solution...like thinking with your innermost instinctive core...
At least your near death experience was exciting and adventurous.. mine involve slipping on stairs carrying laundry, dropping the laundry and clutching at the handrail before I bounce my way all the way down two flights of stairs (which is why I now drop my laundry the stairs instead of carrying the angels of death)
OR
Mowing my lawn and tripping on uneven ground, falling over, and thankfully the mower actually stopped when I let go of the handle (always mow with your cell in your pocket people you never know when you might have to call 911 on yourself).
OR
I am cleaning my bathroom, getting a lung full of cleaner and cannot breath. Nearly passing out and thinking.. great I am in one of those I have fallen and cannot get up commercials (again a case where the cell needs to be close by)
I'll tell you another SCARY diving story!!!
Dalkey Island, Sth. Tip, Dublin... It's about 30mts (90ft) deep and this was in February. Now, 30 meters is just about the limit for safe diving (with no decompression stops) in sport diving. Even at that, you've got about 20 mins MAX 'bottom time'...
Myself and my dive-buddy fell off the boat. Giving the 'ok' sign on surface, we up-ended and began to fin down... It was dark, but we had lights so I could follow my partner in the beam of my Tenka Light... (Good little torch!) Except I hadn't changed the battery. After less than a minute, the light went out. Total Blackness. Looking down, I realized I couldn't see my friends light!
In situations like this, your training says Return To The Surface. So, I... OUCH!!! I hit the sandy sea bed... FUCK! I sat on the bottom, re-oriented myself and pushed off to the surface. After seconds of finning, I BUMPED bottom AGAIN!!! Upside down and weightless, I felt about and felt the sand OVER my head. WTF? AGAIN I sat on the bottom. Again I pushed off to surface.
AGAIN after moments of finning UPWARD (?) I hit bottom. Fuck. It was INKY BLACK.
(What had happened was this: Because 30 meters is a DEEP DIVE, I hadn't adjusted my weight. As you go deeper, your wet-suit COMPRESSES and, in effect, you become HEAVIER! So, because I hadn't compensated for buoyancy, I was in fact swimming in BIG CIRCLES, like looping-the-loop!!!)
But I didn't realize that at the time. By now, I've been under maybe 12-15 minutes... I KNEW I couldn't be in a CAVE, (there aren't any off Dalkey) but I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND what was happening. I took my REG out and, pressing it to my mask, vented it and watched the bubbles shoot off... At a 45 degree angle! *FUCK!*
I had NO IDEA which way up I was, which direction to fin in... And by now I was getting COLD...
What I did is VERY VERY DANGEROUS! (I pulled the emergency INFLATE on my buoyancy jacket!!!) This kinda is like pulling a parachute in reverse!!! I SHOT toward the surface, REMEMBERING to BREATHE OUT all the way up as the air in my lungs EXPANDED. (If you don't do that, your lungs will EXPLODE!) I came up like APOLLO VII!!!
The guys in the Cover Boat said I shot out of the water like a fucking MISSILE!!!
Again, Experienced Divers will say, "You should have GENTLY inflated the jacket until you achieved Neutral Buoyancy!!!" And I should have! But again, as THE BEGINNINGS of panic set it, you sometimes can't think logically...
xx SF
This is really quite a silly story but I could have choked to death. I was on my lunch hour with my friends from the office and we were at a fast food restaurant called "Roy Rogers."
We all ordered our meals. I had a roast beef sandwich with cheese and fries. So we're eating and all of a sudden the roast beef got stuck in my throat and I couldn't breathe. I was choking and my clueless friends thought I was joking around but I really couldn't breathe. I was turning blue. I was pointing to my throat.
Eventually, the man behind me got up and said she can't breathe and gave me the Heimlich maneuver. Before he came I saw stars. Thankfully, the roast beef spat out. It was scary. I was so pissed off with my stupid friends. If that guy didn't come, I think I would have died.
Another time when I was small I had fever and my mother fed me chicken noodle soup. The noodles got lodged in my throat and I passed out. My neighbor gave me mouth to mouth resuscitation and started me breathing again. Then I went to the emergency room. He saved my life.
I do think I will probably die choking...
Xo
When I was 3 I jumped into our pool during a family cookout. No one saw me go in, then my older brother randomly started looking around for me and for some reason decided to look around the pool. I was at the bottom drowning and he jumped in and pulled me out. An adult did cpr and I, obviously, was okay.
6 months ago I was DOA at the hospital from the motherlode of all widowmakers. I was fortunate there were great people at the hospital to bring me back. Although I lost 2/3rd of my heart function I can still fuck like a retired race horse
I actually did die... three times. The first two I recall nothing... only waking in ICU months later. The third time while in ICU I clearly recall the inability to breathe. My lungs collapsed and I was fighting for air, but I was in restrains because I fought to remove the tubes I had inserted at several places in my chest, nose, throat and abdomen. The last thing I saw was a beautiful nurse whose face was telling me I was dying. A feeling no one should ever experience. It has been six years of recovery but my life is forever changed.
Sarcastic Coffee Aficionado
In my near death experience - for a brief moment in time, you know it, and let it go .... it rushes over you like water in a river.
then, if you make it, you never recall the panic or fear .... it just was a moment. The brain is a beautiful thing that usually stops the actual fear .... you can't think rationally about that moment until later.
and for many, it's the turning point of that second (or for some, third, fourth, etc) chance to be better, do better, live better.
Van
