Incident Report

1998-08-06A trip was made in the Roussel with no particular objective other than tourism. The diver had previously been to -45m and -50m in this cave in previous years. Previous dives that week had been undertaken without incident this was the last dive of the holiday. When the diver reached -19m he started to feel slightly nauseous which rapidly developed to feelings of deep sadness (even depression) at -21m. The diver returned to -19m and again only felt slightly nauseous. He descended back to -21m and once again had strong depressive feelings. The diver returned again to -19m thought about it for a while and aborted the dive. No symptoms were noted on the surface either before or after the dive - apart from annoyance.It is assumed narcosis was to blame. I had previously read about symptoms like these but never experienced them and indeed had dismissed the idea so it was quite a shock when it occurred. If the dive had been for a more purposeful reason the urge to progress might have caused greater conflict in choosing to abort. Sometimes it just isn\'t your day...