Deep Dive Mystery: Hit by the Bends

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1:02It's Friday, January the 13th, 2012, somewhere deep within Russia's North Caucasus mountain range. Nestled in a wooded glade, a light fog drifts above Blue Lake. At just 240 by 140 meters, Blue Lake is small and unremarkable, an opaque turquoise pool surrounded by snow-covered foothills. But beneath the surface lies a mystery. Every day, 17 million liters flow out of this body of water, feeding nearby rivers and streams. But the lake never changes volume. That means the same daily volume of water must flow into the lake. But nobody knows where from.

1:57160 meters below the surface, British diver Martin Robson is part of a team intent on finding the elusive hidden source. But after scouring the depths for as long as safety will permit, Martin is yet to find a thing, and his exploration window is drawing to a close. Now he has to ascend, slowly, making regular stops along the way to avoid decompression sickness, more commonly known as the bends. Martin begins to swim upwards, kicking his fins as the dark of the deep eerily merges back into the blue light trickling down from the surface. When he reaches 60 meters, he stops. He's expecting to meet his support diver, Andre, who should be delivering bailout cylinders with extra breathing gas.

2:52But Andre is nowhere to be seen. Martin checks his gas supply. He should have enough left. So he continues up towards the Habitat, a shallow-depth submerged chamber where he will wait out his final decompression stop. But before he reaches the habitat, a pair of support divers approach from above Neither of them is Andre I actually asked them, what's the problem? And they just said, nothing, it's okay, we've just, you know, changed your plan And so, in other words, we've decided to be your support divers and everything is okay But I knew something wasn't quite right Now isn't the time to hang around so Martin presses on with his new support divers.

3:44He reaches the habitat and pulls himself up and into the pressurized chamber.

3:53After completing his final decompression, Martin swims to the surface. He climbs up and out of Blue Lake, the crisp mountain air flooding his lungs as he sits on a bench and starts to de-kit. Then he hears footsteps approaching. He looks up. A member of the team comes over, and in a voice hollow with shock, confirms Martin's hunch that something is indeed very wrong. It wasn't till I got out of the water and was sitting on the bench where I used to kit up and de-kit that someone came up and just said, we've lost Andre.

4:47Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet professional cave diver Martin Robson. In January 2012, Martin is invited to join a research expedition in southern Russia with the aim of locating the water source of Blue Lake. The mission is proceeding as planned, until Martin's support diver, Andrei Radainov, suffers a fatal mishap.

5:31And then, of course, you think, okay, now we need to think about why this has happened and what went wrong. I think the general mood was one of just complete disbelief. With so much still planned, the team take the difficult decision to press on with the expedition. But as Martin once again descends into the deep, an invisible menace overwhelms him, and disaster threatens to strike twice. It felt like I had just been shot in the back and had no control over my legs. They felt heavy, as if I was wearing lead boots. Most people, in a lot of circumstances like that, when things go horribly wrong, they bolt to the surface.

6:17If I'd done that, I probably would have been dead by the time I'd actually broken the surface of the water. I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network this is Real Survival Stories

6:57It's Thursday, January the 19th, 2012, 12.25pm. Forty miles from the city of Nelčík, hidden within the forested foothills of the North Caucasus Mountains, Blue Lake gleams in the winter sun. To one side of the lake is a visitor's center. To the east, a narrow, single-track road snakes off into the trees. A gentle fog rolls across the water towards 50-year-old diver Martin Robson, who sits at the lake's edge. Martin inhales deeply, wrinkling his nose as a now-familiar stench greets his nostrils. To locals, Blue Lake is known as Sherikol, or Rotten Waters. The presence of hydrogen sulfide, which gives the water its luminous color, also produces the smell of rotten eggs.

7:53Unsurprisingly, few tourists ever make the trip. But Martin is no tourist. A world-renowned cave diver, he's here to lead an expedition to discover Blue Lake's elusive source, a mystery that has baffled geologists for decades.

8:12Six days ago, the mission was eclipsed by the tragic death of Martin's support diver, Andre. Following the accident, some members of the team decided to go home. But Martin and a small group of fellow divers and scientists have opted to stay and complete the expedition. We don't want it to finish like this, with sort of like, let's pack up and go home. we would like it to finish with some sense of accomplishment. And also, there is some sense of accomplishment whereby we're also doing something as a little memorial, if you like, you know, in memory of Andre. Today, Martin is preparing to descend beyond 200 meters, or 650 feet, deeper than any of his previous dives.

8:59It's one last roll of the dice to solve the mystery of Blue Lake. They believe it's what Andre would have wanted.

9:10A team complete with medics and support divers wait in the dive center on hand should anything go wrong. They look on nervously as Martin, kitted out in his dry suit, fins and breathing apparatus, enters the ice blue water. Guided by a support rope known as a shot line, he drops into the abyss

9:36The walls of the lake slope inward Narrowing towards a vertical central channel like the middle of an hourglass So now you're just in total darkness, it's completely black Just descending through the darkness like parachuting, you know, freefall, but not as fast. No visual reference other than the line in front of you that's disappearing into the darkness. It is for me an amazing feeling, just absolutely wonderful. Just descending there, completely weightless, just disappearing into the depths of the earth.

10:15Being alone in unfamiliar places is a feeling that Martin knows well. As the son of a Royal Navy officer, he had a somewhat nomadic childhood. But he spent most of his early years on the island of Mauritius. With his parents often preoccupied, a young Martin was left to his own devices. But solitude was never a problem for the adventurous youngster. The thing I remember, and with the most fondness about being on the island of Mauritius, is the fact that I could just go off on my own, sometimes even getting my parents just to drop me, take the car, drop me in the middle of the jungle. I used to do a lot of climbing up mountains on my own.

10:59I had no clue where I was, no map, no compass, and I just enjoyed the activity of going somewhere that I hadn't been before, and particularly on my own. And I think that just gave me a sense of being able to function quite well without the need for a lot of support.

11:20When he was a teenager, the family left Mauritius for a more settled life in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England After leaving school at 16, Martin fell into a series of dead-end jobs But late one night, he switched on the TV and suddenly found direction I saw an advert, and basically the advert was people in rigid raiding craft The sort of like inflatable boats with hard hulls, you know, at high speed across the seas and up the beaches and people storming the beaches and jumping out of helicopters. And I just thought, that just looks like fun. That just looks brilliant. It was an advert for the Royal Marine Commandos.

12:01Right there and then, he decided that was what he wanted to do. He rushed himself down to the Royal Navy Recruitment Center in Kent, where he passed the initial assessment phase. Shortly after completing his training, the young recruit served in the Falklands conflict Martin found his cool disposition and clarity of thought served him well during this time Even while missiles fell from the sky It wasn't frightening at all If one of these things lands on my head, I'm not going to know anything about it So it will or won't happen And it's just not quite another day at the office but it's almost like that.

12:42It's just a part of what you're doing. The acceptance of his mortality, of feeling calm in the face of danger, would stay with him long after he left the military four years later. Something else stuck with him too. When I was in the military was when I did my first dive and did a fair amount of diving when I was serving. and I kept that going after I left. Though he continued to dive recreationally after the Navy, Martin never thought of it as a potential career. Instead, he became a firefighter, scuba diving occasionally as a hobby. Then, on holiday in Malta one year, he was taken cave diving by a local guide.

13:30The thrill of exploring underwater caverns was like nothing he'd ever experienced. And that basically just really hit a nerve and just ignited a passion in me. So when I got back to the UK, I armed myself with some sort of geological survey maps and headed off to France to basically throw myself into any muddy pond, lake or river that I could find in the hope of finding some caves. Cave diving became Martin's sole focus. After several years honing his skills and gaining experience, he received his instructor qualifications. He began traveling the world, teaching the art of the deep dive, how to descend and ascend safely, how to hold your nerve under pressure.

14:19He soon made a name for himself, which led to various invitations to join expeditions across the globe, including a multinational team of scientists and divers who asked Martin to help them locate the mysterious water source of Blue Lake in southern Russia. He said yes immediately, thrilled to be joining. But along with the excitement comes an awareness of the dangers. From extreme water pressure, to freezing temperatures, and the ever-present threat of equipment failure, deep diving is riddled with potential hazards. I would not take any risks either with myself or with anybody else. But if I'm doing something where I have the opportunity to explore, then you try and set it up so that the risk is as minimized as possible and almost non-existent.

15:16To me, the risk of something going wrong compared to the, and I wouldn't call it a reward because it's not, It's the privilege of seeing something on this planet that no one else had seen up to then. And for that, you might take a chance.

15:55Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up, it shows off. First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest croc store today. This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners. Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9 % of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together.

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16:42It's 1240 p.m. Martin is 190 meters underwater, well over 600 feet. This is the deepest dive he has gone on this expedition so far. He's followed a different route to a new part of Blue Lake in an attempt to find the source. He's been told he might see discarded Nazi field artillery sunk to the bottom in this area. But at 190 meters, he sees nothing. No caves, no source, no artifacts. Before his dive, the team decided he would go even deeper, past the 200-meter mark where the last vestiges of light vanish completely. So Martin aims his headlamp and illuminates a path down. Deeper he goes. With the pressure growing, every 60 seconds of these depths will require an additional 30 minutes of decompression on his way back up to the surface.

17:46He soon hits 209 meters, the equivalent of 47 London double-decker buses stacked one on top of another. The pressure is equal to a small car sitting on his chest. But Martin stays calm, composed. At 214 meters, the depth gauge on his watch freezes as the extreme pressure overwhelms the electronics. This is now deeper than he had planned to go Deeper than anyone has gone But he can't stop now Because there it is

18:26Eventually the bottom of that part of the lake Hoved into view and it was just incredible It was just completely barren, silt-covered rocks But it was still something very special Because no one had ever seen that So again, felt very privileged. At 214 meters down, Martin's powerful strobe light is a speck in the unending darkness. As he swims, the lake's rocky floor slopes away from him. Cracked and cratered, covered in weedy vegetation that twists in a slow dance, he runs his gloved hand along the surface. It's mesmerizing But it's not why he's here And there is still no sign of the all-important source Time ticks away After 25 minutes underwater, unfortunately, Martin needs to leave Because of the depth I was at, I didn't spend too long there But I did have a little swim around and then turned around and navigated my way back to what we call the shot line to make my ascent.

19:41It's now 4.05 p.m. Martin has been slowly rising through the water for three and a half hours, ascending meter by meter, allowing his body to adjust to the changing pressure with regular decompression stops. He now dangles by the support line, 24 meters below the surface. The sun's rays spill down through the murk. He checks his watch again. Time to move up to his next decompression stop. But then, as he moves, something hits him in the back. Out of nowhere, Martin's spine is being pummeled by a wave of explosions, doubling him over in agonizing pain. He lurches forward, his joints burning, his back cracking and popping.

20:38There's no mistaking what this is. It's the bends.

20:47Decompression sickness, aka the bends, is probably the greatest peril of deepwater diving. The deeper a dive, the higher the pressure, forcing nitrogen gas to dissolve into the blood and tissues. If a diver rises too quickly, as the pressure decreases, the nitrogen doesn't have time to clear. Instead, it forms dangerous bubbles, somewhat similar to opening a can of fizzy drink inside your veins. Even if a diver accounts for this and takes time to slowly decompress on their way up, allowing the bubbles to disperse, it's still not a totally foolproof system. The damage can cause permanent paralysis, even death.

21:35The pain is unbearable, as Martin is now discovering. It felt like I had just been shot in the back and my legs just, you know, I had no control over my legs. They felt heavy as if I was wearing lead boots. They felt strange as if I had a pair of ice cold thick wet woolly socks on. Martin spins 90 degrees, his legs flopping around like jelly as he violently jolts backwards. He's lost all feeling in his lower half and begins to sink. Semi-paralyzed underwater, he needs to grab hold of something or he will plummet to the lake floor. And if he's unable to swim back up, then his fate will be to bob in the depths, waiting for his air to run out.

22:30His hands flail, and in the nick of time, he manages to get a grip on the shot line. He has bought himself some time.

22:44Now, as the initial shock recedes, he needs to formulate a plan. But it isn't as simple as just going back to the surface. If his surface is too quickly, the nitrogen bubbles inside him will expand, causing brain and heart failure. Because of the dive I have just done, the surface is not my friend. Most people, in a lot of circumstances like that, when things go horribly wrong, is they bolt to the surface. It's fresh air. That's where I'm supposed to live, on the surface. I'm not supposed to exist underwater. I need to be on the surface where I can get some help. And if I'd done that, I'd probably been dead by the time I'd actually broken the surface of the water.

23:31And I knew that. He is left with one option. The only choice I've got, really, is something that is, in some quarters, not frowned upon, but is actually thought of as being just complete insanity. To go back down.

23:50It may seem totally counterintuitive, but going deeper might be Martin's only path to survival. In order to remove the bubbles that have just exploded in his spine, he needs to squeeze them back into his tissues. The only way to do that is to increase the pressure. The only way to increase the pressure is to go down. Hopefully, when he descends, Martin will recover some feeling in his legs. He will then be able to ascend again more slowly up to the surface, where he can receive re-pressurization treatment. It's a faint hope, but it's all he has. Martin takes one last look at the light on the surface.

24:37Up above, he sees two support divers swimming in his direction. He signals to them, trying to let them know his outlandish plan. Then he prepares to let go of the line. I signaled. I gave a thumbs-down signal, which means I'm going to descend. And so I let go of the line, and I just disappeared back into the darkness.

25:12It's 4.06pm, deep below the surface of Blue Lake in southern Russia. Martin sinks like a stone through the gloomy depths. The gases in his body froth and fizz, an agonizing, unseen torment. Swimming closely behind him is fellow diver, Roman, who is there to assist in whatever small way he can. Martin looks at the shot line reeling past him as he heads further and further down. But deeper means crushing the bubbles in his spine. Deeper gives him a chance of moving his legs. Deeper is the new hope. When he reaches a depth of 36 meters, Martin pulls on the shot line. At this depth and pressure, he begins to regain some feeling in his legs.

26:09His plan seems to have worked. The bubbles must have dispersed sufficiently. He kicks his legs gently, gesturing to Raman that he's got some sensation back. They take their time. They can't rush this. Raman pumps some air into Martin's dry suit, providing him with some additional buoyancy before the men signal to each other that they are ready to ascend. Soon, the day's faint light glows from above as Martin nears the surface. He can make out the dark, blurry figures of his support team, jostling above the waterline. Martin pulls on the line and signals to Raman that he is ready to approach the habitat, A small box-like chamber, five meters below the surface, rigged with a seat, communication gear, and a fresh oxygen supply.