I was in the gulf of Mexico doing a deep air salvage job removing debris from a scrapped platform in 180'. It was hard hat diving and I was wearing my superlite 17 B tethered to the surface... I had a steel plate the size of a sheet of plywood and 1" thick laying flat on the bottom. I had a down line to the site from the barge and they sent a crane line down to me with a couple of nylon slings. I got the bad boy slung up and had the tops side crew add a little tension to it to make sure the slings wouldn't slip.... then I backed way of the side behind a big steal trash basket while the crew tried to bring up the load.....Mud suction held the plate on the bottom and they kept adding force to the line...finally the suction broke loose and the plate came free.. as it did it planned out in the water and spun around it chased me down to my safe spot and hit the side of the hat shearing off the valve assembly....the hat started to flood. I couldn't reach the surface because my umbilical and down line were tied together by the spinning plate....about four breaths of air were in the "dead space" of the hat and I could feel the water rise inside with each intake.. I told tops side what had happened on the com and they were trying to life everything.... after that last breath the saltwater came in and filled my lungs...after the fist gulp that burned a little it wasn't so bad and for a few seconds I was "breathing" water ..pretty cool I thought. I knew I was done and made my peace with the water spirit and lost consciousness... The next thing I knew was waking up in a decompression chamber on the barge( doing deco dives) and the emt in there had just shocked me the third time and got me started again....They flew me out after my chamber time and sent me to center in New Orleans... I was treated for pneumonia in the lungs with antibiotics and after four weeks off I was cleared to dive again no permanent damage done....I went back diving for 2 more years....
a year almost to the day I was down 40' cutting a "flushed" six inch line left over from Hurricane Andrew and hit a gas pocket of o2 and hydrogen( residual from other divers cutting) that was in a rise of the line... this one blew my hat off my head and knocked me out. I woke up in the Hospital they had to bring me back in the chamber again but after they got the heart pumping I didn't regain consciousness until I made the Hospital... pneumonia again and ruptured ear drums..... out for six months and the Dr. cleared me again...... dove another year and decided to change professions... became a cop it was safer..lol..