GoPro: Cave Divers Relive Scary Incident

Diver Jeanna Edgerton and her husband Brian Wiederspan describe in detail one of the most intense scenes of the series. After surfacing in a dome with “bad air”, Jeanna struggles to stay afloat and is deprived of oxygen. Brian and the rest of the team quickly mobilize to come to her aid during a very tense, touch-and-go moment.

A very special thanks to:
Robbie Schmittner, Toddy Waelde, Guillermo De Anda, Dante Garcia, Bil Phillips, Jim Coke, Jeff Clark, Gosia Pytel, Brian Wiederspan, Jeanna Edgerton, Adair Crow, Maria Noel Zisa, Marty O'Farrell

Thank you to the Instituto Nacional de Anthropología e Historia (INAH) for the kind support in the creation and presentation of this project.
INAH Researcher – Guillermo de Anda, Ph.D

The Quintana Roo Speleological Survey

Riviera Maya Grip, Hydroflex, Dive Rite, Big Blue Dive Lights, Xibalba Dive Center, Tulum Scuba, Protec Sardinia, Frog Kick Diving

Music Courtesy of Score Revolution

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[JonDoe-gntl]

This is why I will NEVER cave dive in a MILLION YEARS. Too dark, scary, and risky. Give me a nice reef with good visibility and I'm a happy camper.

[Eviothon]

"My inflator came loose!" Ten minutes later, " so what we figured out was her inflator came loose."

[neophoys]

I watched the whole series and this is really, really frightening to see.. I did not know Jeanna had 25 years of diving experience and 9 years experience with caves.. Those figures are what make this clip so scary in my opinion. Even the best trained divers can turn into a helpless mess when panic takes over the brain.. Really glad the all made it out safe! Much love

[tjanderson]

She’s mad lucky she had experienced divers w/ her. Once that panic set in she was effed if not for them

[arctic_ita]

All this comments and only the 0.1% got what really happened here? The girl did a single big (big considering what happened after..) mistake: she took off her regulator when emerged (probably lead due to the stress of her wing was getting flooded) in a non breathable chamber, what happened after was a consequence of it: inability to think, no lucidity, panic.
When you do cave you know that those rooms can be full of non breathable gases that may knock you out in a matter of seconds, so you never take your regulator off (you should never do really) unless you're 100% certain of how the chamber is connected to the surface and that there's always good air; she broken the protocol probably due to the fact that was hard breathing due to the heavy finning (since the bc malfunction) and who does scuba diving knows that while in surface (due to the even pressure on the membrane) is much more easily to breath without a regulator and it's normal to do so in open water.. but not in a cave, that "little" oversight would have turned into a tragic event.
So stop to talk about panic, refuse to take regulator, and whatever... her mistake was "only" to take off the reg from her mouth, the rest was a consequence of her brain not receiving enough oxygen.

[demisfarrugia]

Kudos to you guys for managing the situation well in a very critical moment. You saved this divers lives! Solid teamwork.

[taric_]

This is how grandparents describe they got to school

[DanielHernandiCaserta]

one of the most intensive part of all footage...

[corpllc]

Holy shit i'm very happy she made it out... Boy it goes to show, follow the strictest protocols, never allow anything out of the ordinary take you down a path to you demise... This is almost heartbreaking to see a man with his wife struggling to keep her alive... idc who u r and how professional you are, when death is getting close, you begin to loose your mind... glad its all over not only for her but her husband, I couldn't imagine what was going through his mind.

[akbt]

For non-divers who don't know what's going on & divers who are criticizing her (not critiquing, criticizing): 🤗💖

I can explain! For beginners 1st, divers at the end. 💖🙏

1 - The Gear
On your Buoyancy Comepensator Device, or BCD (the vest strapped to you) there's a hose that is connected to your air tank. It's called an inflator hose because you use it to add air to your BCD to help you float and remain neutrally buoyant so you don't bob up and down. The dry suit she was wearing is different than a wetsuit. Both are designed to keep you warm while underwater. A wetsuit is that skin tight stuff you normally see. Surfers wear them all the time, too. A dry suit is a loose overhanging suit that looks like what astronauts wear. You can even wear normal clothes underneath them! The science is you fill it with air and it keeps you much, much warmer and is intended for very cold water.

You have to let air out or in of both your BC and dry suit as you change your depth. When you're below the surface, the pressure of the water will keep you down. When you're at the surface, you need more air because you are less buoyant. Because your gear is heavy, without air in your BC and drysuit, you begin to sink.

2 - The Panic
What happened was, as she was ascending and adding air to her bc/dry suit to keep her afloat, that inflator hose broke off. Panic set in.

When you panic, the very first thing that happens is you begin to ditch all your gear...you know, the ones that are actually keeping you alive. It's a response that happens because your brain thinks it can't breathe (when it can) and thinks that is what is keeping you from breathing, so people start ditching their gear. She took her regulator out of her mouth (that round thing she's breathing out of), which, on a normal surface would've been safe-ish cuz all you'd have to worry about is swallowing water (which could add to more panic and more problems, but at least you could breath alright), but this cave had poor air quality, so she could have passed out immediately by not breathing the air from her tank. Now you've got an unconcious diver with bad gear. Luckily, she didn't pass out, but the lack of quality air in the cave made it even harder for her brain to think straight and so the panic continued as well. So, she had panic going on from the gear, plus when she got to the surface and removed her regulator, she was then facing the toxic air around her.

Luckily, she was trained well and began to take many steps to keep it from escelating into a terrible scene. She called out for help, caught herself from actually ditching her gear and didn't, kept putting the reg back in her mouth even after she kept throwing it away, and managed to stay pretty level throughout it all. And her team was right there immediately to walk her thru all the steps and calm her down. ALL THAT happened because of training. Because the emergency response was rooted into all of them. At any moment, in an instant, this could have gone terribly worse. Not only do panicked divers start removing their own gear, but they also become violent and start stealing gear from their dive buddies because they realize they can't breathe and need support. This panic can happen to anyone with any kind of dive experience and for any reason. Even a little fish swimming by can trigger panic in a 30 year long diver. There's a lot to go wrong and this in an instant could have become fatal. However, they all stopped that from happening and it's really amazing to see. Makes me so grateful for training. 🙏

* *For all yall divers at there* ... * yall know what panic is like. You can't think straight. Yall know it ain't fully her fault, give her some grace. But look at the beautiful emergency response they ALL performed, including herself. She yelled "Take this gear off!" but stopped herself. She threw the reg out, but then put it back in. She listened to the others. Most notably, she immediately called out for help and alerted everyone else about what was going on. She knew what emergency was happening and bc of the training rooted in her, saved herself along with her team helping in that. That is something to be darn proud of. For all of them. This is an accepting community, it's troubling to see such harsh comments. Yes, we see these videos and use them to better ourselves, but we should not berate and degrade our fellow divers.

We are all at the mercy of the elements, no matter how experienced. You are not her, you were not the one panicking, you were not the one who believed their life was on the line. And, guess what? When you're diving, at every moment, your life IS on the line. Why have many forgotten this in your comments? I hope to see more accepting and uplifting comments in the future. Can we be more understanding of each other, please? 🤗💖 Oss. 👌🙏

[landlockedviking]

Super scary, what a classic case of panic. Great recount!

[povang]

Pretty scary that such an experienced diver like her can still panic.

[steveraygonzales]

This goes to show that you can be the best at what you do and still things can go wrong. When she said she had to get this gear off you know its near death she almost died. You don't have to be clostrophobic to one day learn how uncomfortable that feeling is.

[farronthomas]

Who else was breathing hard to try to make her breath

[luislizard]

I once ran out of oxygen and start panicking my instructor tried to give me some of his regulator but i was so agitated that I drifted away!! thanks god my mum conceived me from a night stand with a shark so I was able to breathe thanks to the gills I've inherited from my dad

[greeneyes]

No matter what you can't breath see how you will act !! Experienced or not....

[chelseaw]

I had a panic attack when learning to dive, the surface is always the worst place. Now I always put my head underwater if I am slightly out of breath or over exerted on the surface, the extra pressure on the regulator increases air flow and helps you begin to breathe normally again, you’re no longer stressed about keeping water out of your mouth from waves again etc.

[williamseymourjones]

they have such an adventurous life. some people spend all their days sitting behind computers in office blocks, these guys are modern day adventurers. right on.

[VUDACRIS]

Yeah she was so "experienced".

[Maltesezx]

I don't get the arguing here, but dang dude I'm glad she was ok. You handled the situation very well!