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You know how you read one thing, which links to another, which makes you wiki something, which leads to a video, and the next thing you know you haven't showered in three days, the mail is piling up, and the dogs are looking at you funny?
Yeah, that...
Started here:
A Nigerian cook has survived after spending almost three days trapped in an air bubble under a sunken ship.
He was in the ship 100 ft underwater in a pitch black room. For three days. Then was rescued when divers were recovering bodies.
He thought he had only been trapped for 12 hours but it had really been over two days. Having been under 3 ATM pressure for nearly three days he spent two days in a decompression chamber.
Then I found out there's video of the underwater rescue. Crazy.
So, that led to some reading about decompression and cool stuff people have done at depth and it brought me to info on simulated dives (in compression chambers) done at Duke.
They did a 2,250 ft simulated dive (over 68 ATM). It took 43 days to decompress from that (2-3 ft/hr at some points).
And that brought me to the grand finale.
The Byford Dolphin.
All of which led to this quite startling shit:
Divers D1, D2, and D3 were exposed to the effects of explosive decompression and died in the positions indicated by the diagram. Subsequent investigation by forensic pathologists determined D4, being exposed to the highest pressure gradient, violently exploded due to the rapid and massive expansion of internal gases. All of his thoracic and abdominal organs, and even his thoracic spine, were ejected, as were all of his limbs. Simultaneously, his remains were expelled through the narrow trunk opening left by the jammed chamber door, less than 60 centimetres (24 in) in diameter. Fragments of his body were found scattered about the rig. One part was even found lying on the rig's derrick, 10 metres (30 ft) directly above the chambers. The deaths of all four divers were most likely instantaneous.
Medical investigations were carried out on the four divers' remains. The most conspicuous finding of the autopsy was large amounts of fat in large arteries and veins and in the cardiac chambers, as well as intravascular fat in organs, especially the liver.[5] This fat was unlikely to be embolic, but must have "dropped out" of the blood in situ.[5] It is suggested the boiling of the blood denatured the lipoprotein complexes, rendering the lipids insoluble.[5]
The rigor mortis was unusually strong.[5] The hypostases (accumulations of blood in internal organs) were light red, and in two cases, there were numerous hemorrhages in the livers. All the organs showed large amounts of gas in the blood vessels, and scattered hemorrhages were found in soft tissues. One of the divers had a large sub-conjunctival bulla (a blister in the tissue of the eye).[5]
And there you have it.
Explosive decompression blows. Pun intended.
Yeah, that...
Started here:
A Nigerian cook has survived after spending almost three days trapped in an air bubble under a sunken ship.
He was in the ship 100 ft underwater in a pitch black room. For three days. Then was rescued when divers were recovering bodies.
Out in the ocean, a search and rescue team had been sent to locate the remains of the men. They swiftly found ten of the 11 bodies, and were not expecting to find anything more.
“Then I heard a sound like anchor dropping again,” Mr Okene said. “I also heard sound of paddling and divers’ craft moving around the boat. I heard a hammering sound from afar.”
Wadding through the room, he found more tools, including a hammer. He began to strip the wall of the cabin until he got to the steel body.
“I started using the hammer to hit the wall to attract the divers. I heard them moving about. They were far away from where I was. I did that for some minutes and stopped. After a while, the sound died.”
Mr Okene thought that he would not be discovered, but the rescuers returned and the freezing cook jumped into the water, swimming through the ship to get the attention of the diver.
“I touched his head and he was shocked. He was searching and I just saw the light, so I jumped into the water. As he was shocked, he stretched out his hands.”
Mr Okene said he heard voices from the diver’s speaker shouting: “There is a survivor, he is alive.”
Paul McDonald, a member of the rescue crew, said: “All on board could not believe how cool he was when being rescued.
“Then I heard a sound like anchor dropping again,” Mr Okene said. “I also heard sound of paddling and divers’ craft moving around the boat. I heard a hammering sound from afar.”
Wadding through the room, he found more tools, including a hammer. He began to strip the wall of the cabin until he got to the steel body.
“I started using the hammer to hit the wall to attract the divers. I heard them moving about. They were far away from where I was. I did that for some minutes and stopped. After a while, the sound died.”
Mr Okene thought that he would not be discovered, but the rescuers returned and the freezing cook jumped into the water, swimming through the ship to get the attention of the diver.
“I touched his head and he was shocked. He was searching and I just saw the light, so I jumped into the water. As he was shocked, he stretched out his hands.”
Mr Okene said he heard voices from the diver’s speaker shouting: “There is a survivor, he is alive.”
Paul McDonald, a member of the rescue crew, said: “All on board could not believe how cool he was when being rescued.
Then I found out there's video of the underwater rescue. Crazy.
So, that led to some reading about decompression and cool stuff people have done at depth and it brought me to info on simulated dives (in compression chambers) done at Duke.
They did a 2,250 ft simulated dive (over 68 ATM). It took 43 days to decompress from that (2-3 ft/hr at some points).
And that brought me to the grand finale.
The Byford Dolphin.
On 5 November 1983 at 4:00 a.m., while drilling in the Frigg gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, four divers were in a decompression chamber system attached by a trunk (a short passage) to a diving bell on the rig, being assisted by two dive tenders.[5] The four divers were:
Edwin Coward (British, 35 years old)
Roy Lucas (British, 38 years old)
Bjørn Giæver Bergersen (Norwegian, 29 years old)
Truls Hellevik (Norwegian, 34 years old)[9]
One diver was about to close the door between the chamber system and the trunk when the chamber explosively decompressed from a pressure of nine atmospheres to one atmosphere in a fraction of a second. One of the tenders, 32-year-old William Crammond of Great Britain, and all four of the divers were killed instantly; the other tender (named Saunders) was severely injured.
Edwin Coward (British, 35 years old)
Roy Lucas (British, 38 years old)
Bjørn Giæver Bergersen (Norwegian, 29 years old)
Truls Hellevik (Norwegian, 34 years old)[9]
One diver was about to close the door between the chamber system and the trunk when the chamber explosively decompressed from a pressure of nine atmospheres to one atmosphere in a fraction of a second. One of the tenders, 32-year-old William Crammond of Great Britain, and all four of the divers were killed instantly; the other tender (named Saunders) was severely injured.
Divers D1, D2, and D3 were exposed to the effects of explosive decompression and died in the positions indicated by the diagram. Subsequent investigation by forensic pathologists determined D4, being exposed to the highest pressure gradient, violently exploded due to the rapid and massive expansion of internal gases. All of his thoracic and abdominal organs, and even his thoracic spine, were ejected, as were all of his limbs. Simultaneously, his remains were expelled through the narrow trunk opening left by the jammed chamber door, less than 60 centimetres (24 in) in diameter. Fragments of his body were found scattered about the rig. One part was even found lying on the rig's derrick, 10 metres (30 ft) directly above the chambers. The deaths of all four divers were most likely instantaneous.
Medical investigations were carried out on the four divers' remains. The most conspicuous finding of the autopsy was large amounts of fat in large arteries and veins and in the cardiac chambers, as well as intravascular fat in organs, especially the liver.[5] This fat was unlikely to be embolic, but must have "dropped out" of the blood in situ.[5] It is suggested the boiling of the blood denatured the lipoprotein complexes, rendering the lipids insoluble.[5]
The rigor mortis was unusually strong.[5] The hypostases (accumulations of blood in internal organs) were light red, and in two cases, there were numerous hemorrhages in the livers. All the organs showed large amounts of gas in the blood vessels, and scattered hemorrhages were found in soft tissues. One of the divers had a large sub-conjunctival bulla (a blister in the tissue of the eye).[5]
And there you have it.
Explosive decompression blows. Pun intended.
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