Caustic Cocktail

Hi A friend of mine had a very nasty experience getting a caustic cocktail whilst on a Dolphin SC Rebreather. He's ended up with pneumonia which the docs say should have killed him.

He did predive leak checks and a bubble check at the start of the dive but reckons he forgot to empty the mouthpiece before opening it thereby letting water into the breathing loop. He did this about 6 times and 18 mins into the dive got a caustic cocktail.

Does anyone know if this would be the likely cause of it or could there have been something wrong with the machine(it hadn't been used for some time apparently).

Would approx 6 mouthfulls of water be enough to start a caustic cocktail?

If the unit was set up wrong, would it have taken 18 mins to leak enough water in to start the cocktail? Also how come the pre dive leakchecks and bubble check revealed no leaks?

Cheers for any comments

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