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[tstormwarning]

I went diving with a group from a local diving club. I had dove with everyone there before, except one person. She was the wife of one of the guys I had previously dove with who was there. He went with the other half of our entire group for a deep dive. The guys wife (lady #1), another lady (lady #2), one of the guys & myself decided to stay in the shallow end of the quarry. Lady #2 & myself were still getting used to our dry suits, Lady #1 (my buddy) had been out of diving for a while & the guy with us just wanted to do an easy dive. She had not done much diving since her OW class because of pregnancy. She also was from sunny FL, so wasn't familiar with diving in cold water (56 degree surface temps.). She was wearing a 3mm & a 7mm wetsuits. She & I decided to buddy up & Lady #2 & one of the guys buddied up for our foursome. My buddy & I swam out to a buoy in about 20' of water to give her a line to descend on. We were going to descend & then wait for lady #2 & her buddy to join us. She was a bit under weighted & had a bit of trouble getting down. We descended on a boat & swam over to a training platform. AT that time the guy in our group had his regulator free flow suddenly while surface swimming out & he couldn't get it under control. It emptied his tank quickly. He got back to shore & decide to pack it in for the day. His buddy then came back over to the platform to join us as a group of 3. Within a couple of minutes my buddy signaled OOA to me. I quickly found my secondary & offered it to her. I grabbed her BCD & we made a controlled ascent from 20'. When we got to the surface I had her to inlate her BCD, as she was a little freaked out (not panicked, but very nervous), so Lady #2 & I towed her back to shore. We got her out of her wetsuits & warmed her up. We looked at her gauges & the tank was empty. There was no noticeable leak, bubbles or noise before or during the dive. He husband had told her that he had filled her tank (he is a volunteer firefighter rescue diver & the dept has a breathing air compressor). I'm not sure, but I believe that lady #1 took her husband's word & failed to check the pressure herself. The tank had to have been mostly empty by the day of the dive. For someone who had only a few dives under her belt, she was a real trooper through the ordeal & did everything she was taught during the emergency. I was very proud of her for not panicking. It did make for an interesting dive. She learned the importance of knowing & watching her air pressure. It was a situation that could have gone very badly, but worked out in the end.