Vomiting while diving - Dont read if eating.

What happens if you vomit while diving? Strange question I know, but a real
possibility given that a fair amount of diving is conducted in just the
circumstances that can cause this, i.e.

Excursion, stress and having been out the night before eating and drinking
things one might not usually.

Anyone have any experiences with this??


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On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:53:24 +0100, dixit "Mike Higgins"
<Mike@NOSPAMgingernuts.org.uk>:

>Anyone have any experiences with this??

Paging Al...

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"Mike Higgins" <Mike@NOSPAMgingernuts.org.uk> wrote in message
news:Eo6cnV2RNb5jE_miXTWJhw@brightview.com...
>
> What happens if you vomit while diving? Strange question I know, but a
real
> possibility given that a fair amount of diving is conducted in just the
> circumstances that can cause this, i.e.
>
> Excursion, stress and having been out the night before eating and drinking
> things one might not usually.
>
> Anyone have any experiences with this??
>
>
Yep, plenty of experience.

If it's beer vomit (i.e. runny!) it goes straight out through the reg, if
it's slightly more lumpy, them it will stick inside the reg and you need to
take your reg out and purge it to clear the bits away.

Either way, the fish swarm in to feed!

HTH

> .............Excursion, stress and having ............

Should have been Exertion - Sorry, spell check mangled that one.

Mike Higgins <Mike@NOSPAMgingernuts.org.uk> wrote:
> What happens if you vomit while diving? Strange question I know, but
> a real possibility given that a fair amount of diving is conducted in
> just the circumstances that can cause this, i.e.
>
> Excursion, stress and having been out the night before eating and
> drinking things one might not usually.
>
> Anyone have any experiences with this??

The most impressive I've seen was a buddy giving me some
strange signals on a stop. He had chundered into his
turtle. Apparantly you had to blow a bit to clear out the
valves in the mouthpiece but it all kept working.

For all that I'm often seasick as a dog in a boat once
I get in the water I tend to be OK.

nigelH

"Tricky" <scubatricky@nospam.yahoo.co.uk> wrote

> Yep, plenty of experience.

To much detail...

K

Mike Higgins wrote:
> What happens if you vomit while diving? Strange question I know, but a real
> possibility given that a fair amount of diving is conducted in just the
> circumstances that can cause this, i.e.
>
> Excursion, stress and having been out the night before eating and drinking
> things one might not usually.
>
> Anyone have any experiences with this??


I was told by an instructor that it is possible to vomit through a
regulator,

although I have no actual experience of this. I guess so long as it was
fairly

'liquid' it might be OK.

I was taught to vomit through the regulator. Apparently others have been
taught to remove it. Here's a bit more information on both.

Once upon a time, on patio of the the Sunset House on Grand Cayman, I ate
one of the mystery meat sandwhiches provided free of charge to a travel
agent group who were visiting, also free of charge. Whoever said there was
no free lunch wasn't far from the truth. I paid for that sandwhich later.

Our plan was to watch for the tourist shuttle that would bring pod people
(cruise ship guests) to the tourist submarine. When the cruise ships were
in port, the sub moored near Sunset House and visited the Nicholson, an LST
wreck directly out from the motel. Just after finishing the sandwhich, the
shuttle departed for the sub and we departed for the wreck. Since we didn't
want to take a chance on missing the sub, we were moving at a pretty good
clip. We made it with time to spare and dropped down on the wreck to await
the sub. That's when I paid the price I mentioned. That sandwhich hit like
a ton of bricks and there was no way it was staying down. At 60 or 80 feet,
or whatever, I was going to be sick, no ifs, ands or buts about it. The
tender for the sub was directly above and blacker than the, by then, night
sky, so directly up was out of the question. The sub was somewhere in the
area. so wandering around didn't sound like a real good idea either. Having
narrowed it down to only one option, I got rid of that sandwhich through the
regulator.

Here's what I learned in the process:
1. You can throw up through your regulator. I suppose there might be a
problem if you fail to chew your food properly, but everything I had passed
through the regulator without a problem.
2. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was to keep that regulator
in my mouth. Every instinct I have screamed at me to get any obstructions
out of the way. I literally had to put a hand on the regulator to hold it
in place to keep it in my mouth. As bad as I've made it sound, it was
worse.
3. After every heave to expell something, there was an almost immediate and
very instinctive inhale in preparation for the next. I do not know if I
could have resisted the urge to breathe in until I could get the regulator
back in my mouth. Some say you can, I have my doubts. If/when this happens
again, my regulator will stay in my mouth again.
4. We were on the west side of Grand Cayman and had gone due East to the
wreck. I had a compass, lights, etc. and knew quite well how I had
approached the wreck. After purging my stomach, I would have had trouble
telling you which way was up, let alone which way was back. I turned to my
wife/buddy and she pointed the way back. I suppose a little thought would
have allowed me to return to the shore safely, but at that particular
moment, I was not thinking very well. It's nice to have the help of a buddy
in a case like this.

Oh yes, the submarine was one of the coolest things I've ever seen
underwater. First we heard it, then we began to see the glow of its lights.
Next, we could see shadows of what looked like silt stirred up by the
motors, sillouetted by the subs lights. Then, out of all of this, the subs
and its lights came into focus. If you saw Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, that's as close as you're likely to get without having been there.
Very, very cool and, yes, even worth the unpleasantness brought on by that
sandwhich followed by a quick swim.

Lee

"
> I was taught to vomit through the regulator. >

Hmmm. I have visions here of dive masters force feeding students
humongous amounts of food and making them be sick!!! Perhaps its just
my imagination!. For what its worth I have been sick a coupla times
through my reg. Not a nice feeling but boy does it bring the fish!

Hi all
Missed the original mail so ........

I vomited underwater at about 15m whilst in Cozumel (Palancar reef)

The answer is yes the vomit does go out through the regulator
.............BUT my problem was I was inhaling at the time so I aspirated
and ended up in the Diving Hospital in Cozumel (Nice place one patient -me-
five doctors)

The doctors put this occurrence down to GOKY (God Only Knows Why)
Since then we have worked out that because my bottom jaw is off-set I don't
get as good a seal as I should with ordinary mouthpieces so I'm going to get
some Sherwood one with the long side arms to stop me spraying the back of my
throat with water (especially sea water) every time I breath in

I have now got the medico's clearance to dive BUT the wife is still in
"You are not going" mode


--
Regards
Gray & Steph
Buddies first
husband and wife second

"BarryNL" <johan@jpmeijer.info> wrote in message
news:3F64DB96.3080609@jpmeijer.info...
> Mike Higgins wrote:
> > What happens if you vomit while diving? Strange question I know, but a
real
> > possibility given that a fair amount of diving is conducted in just the
> > circumstances that can cause this, i.e.
> >
> > Excursion, stress and having been out the night before eating and
drinking
> > things one might not usually.
> >
> > Anyone have any experiences with this??
>
>
> I was told by an instructor that it is possible to vomit through a
> regulator,
>
> although I have no actual experience of this. I guess so long as it was
> fairly
>
> 'liquid' it might be OK.
>


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