Accidental Surfacing After Saturation From 100 FSW 



Accidental surfacing is one of the most serious problems in saturation diving. 

 Prior to the 50-ft TEKTITE II missions (in which the aquanauts were actually- 

 saturated at 40 FSW in a 91% N2-97o O2 atmosphere), calculations that were 

 supported by experimental data suggested that accidental surfacing might not 

 pose a significant threat if it lasted no longer than 15 min. No such period 

 of grace could be expected in the 100 FSW missions, however. 



Lack of funds prohibited experimentation to establish an emergency treatment 

 program in the event of accidental surfacing from 100 FSW, as had been done 

 for the 50-ft missions. It was therefore necessary arbitrarily to develop a 

 program for handling any such emergencies, based on past diving experience 

 and extrapolations from them. 



The counsel and guidance of the Medical Advisory Board was then sought, as well 

 as of others with experience in the field of diving physiology. The problem 

 was carefully examined in committee. The consensus was that, if the surface 

 interval lasted no longer than 3 min, the subject might be repressurized and 

 treated before the onset of acute CNS symptomatology, and ultimate death, 

 would transpire. On the basis of this consensus, the accidental-surfacing 

 treatment schedule shown in Appendix D was adopted. 



A more complete report of the Medical Support Program 

 and the development of the decompression schedules 

 calculated for use in TEKTITE II, for both the 50-ft 

 and 100-ft missions, can be found in the Summary 

 Medical Report prepared by the Marine Biomedical 

 Institute, University of Texas Medical Branch (Gal- 

 veston) , for submission to the Sea Grant Program of 

 the National Science Foundation. Also a detailed 

 description of the 100 FSW decompression study can 

 be found in "Experiments to Determine Decompression 

 Tables for the TEKTITE II 100-FSW Mission," 

 Peter Edel, J and J Marine Diving Co., March 31, 1971., 



*This work was supported by the National Science 

 Foundation, Grant Number GH79, under the title of 

 Medical Aspects of Sustained Deep-sea Operations. 



IX-20 



