Several incidents culminating in chamber rides, a couple of serious injuries, a couple of deaths... Mostly preventable.
Critical Accident Rescues/Incidents - How many involvements have you had?
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dumpsterDiver
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I've been around 4 fatalities, 2 bad bends that caused permanent paralysis, several less severe bends that had good outcomes, many near drownings, I've done only one REAL UW rescue and many rescues on the surface and got bent a little once myself (well probably several times, a little).
The only diving accident I witnessed was in a quarry. In fact it was not a diving accident, but a heart attack that happened to a new diver underwater.
We have just arrived to the quarry and we were preparing for our first dive. We heard one of the divers in the surface shouting and waving his arm for help. We entered to the water only with basic gear and swam to the other side of the quarry (something like 150 meters) where the diver was.
We helped him to rise the body of the diver in distress out of the water. The DI was already dead. His buddy (in fact the instructor) started CPR but was too late. Some months later, when we returned to the quarry to dive again, the LDS told us that the diver suffered a heart attack underwater and the coroner established that it was not a diving accident but a heart attack owing to the bad physical condition of the new diver.
In that moment I had 50 dives under my belt and was diving since 3 years (not too much).
We have just arrived to the quarry and we were preparing for our first dive. We heard one of the divers in the surface shouting and waving his arm for help. We entered to the water only with basic gear and swam to the other side of the quarry (something like 150 meters) where the diver was.
We helped him to rise the body of the diver in distress out of the water. The DI was already dead. His buddy (in fact the instructor) started CPR but was too late. Some months later, when we returned to the quarry to dive again, the LDS told us that the diver suffered a heart attack underwater and the coroner established that it was not a diving accident but a heart attack owing to the bad physical condition of the new diver.
In that moment I had 50 dives under my belt and was diving since 3 years (not too much).
If you dive a lot you will eventually be exposed to something. I've been diving 9 years. I highly value my past training especially Resue and Divemaster, CPR/EFR. So far this is what I've seen or dealt with:
1. Assisted a diver / "new" buddy back to the boat. At the surface he stated he didn't like that dive and was having a tough time. He wanted to blow his safety stop but I convinced him to do 3 minutes at 15 fsw. On the boat ride back he complained of a sore arm. He called Dan eventually. I took him directly to a nearby chamber per Dan advice. I was fresh out of a Rescue class. Looking back that safety stop probably reduced his "hit" significantly. His pain went away in the chamber so most likely a true hit. Lesson learned don't party all night and chain smoke while on a dive trip (not me)
...........
2. Shore dive gone wrong. Buddy went in an "untested" area to gear up. I had all my gear on except my fins. He "slipped" into a hole and was now in water over his head. Regulators were not within reach. Overweighted (testing new gear), mask off etc. Started to panic. I yelled to him I was on my way. When I got to him classic "dog paddle" trying to climb on top of me. I yelled inflate your BC and stop pushing me under. I secured my air source and got him positive / verified / helped inflate BC and got his reg in his mouth. Swimming without fins (both of us he never got his on) sucked. 10 feet felt like forever. Got him to shore and he eventually stopped hyperventilating. That was a very close call and happened within seconds. Diver has been certified since the 60's..........
3. Deep drift dive. Diver A was gung ho on going deep. Diver B followed along and freaked most likely narced in the fast current and dark conditions at depth. Made a rushed ascent to the surface. Paniced and was hanging on brush along the shore of the river. I swam upstream as far as I could. Not fun against a multi-knot current. I got as close as I could and kept in constant communication. Eventually between me and the boat we coaxed him out of the "pocket" he was in. Got him on the boat and O2. Luckily no expansion injury or bend. Another close one.
4. I was at Dutch Springs when an unresponsive diver was pulled out. He didn't make it. I think he was only 16. Sad day. Because of the amount of diving there I usually witness at least several emergency calls there each year.
1. Assisted a diver / "new" buddy back to the boat. At the surface he stated he didn't like that dive and was having a tough time. He wanted to blow his safety stop but I convinced him to do 3 minutes at 15 fsw. On the boat ride back he complained of a sore arm. He called Dan eventually. I took him directly to a nearby chamber per Dan advice. I was fresh out of a Rescue class. Looking back that safety stop probably reduced his "hit" significantly. His pain went away in the chamber so most likely a true hit. Lesson learned don't party all night and chain smoke while on a dive trip (not me)
...........2. Shore dive gone wrong. Buddy went in an "untested" area to gear up. I had all my gear on except my fins. He "slipped" into a hole and was now in water over his head. Regulators were not within reach. Overweighted (testing new gear), mask off etc. Started to panic. I yelled to him I was on my way. When I got to him classic "dog paddle" trying to climb on top of me. I yelled inflate your BC and stop pushing me under. I secured my air source and got him positive / verified / helped inflate BC and got his reg in his mouth. Swimming without fins (both of us he never got his on) sucked. 10 feet felt like forever. Got him to shore and he eventually stopped hyperventilating. That was a very close call and happened within seconds. Diver has been certified since the 60's..........
3. Deep drift dive. Diver A was gung ho on going deep. Diver B followed along and freaked most likely narced in the fast current and dark conditions at depth. Made a rushed ascent to the surface. Paniced and was hanging on brush along the shore of the river. I swam upstream as far as I could. Not fun against a multi-knot current. I got as close as I could and kept in constant communication. Eventually between me and the boat we coaxed him out of the "pocket" he was in. Got him on the boat and O2. Luckily no expansion injury or bend. Another close one.
4. I was at Dutch Springs when an unresponsive diver was pulled out. He didn't make it. I think he was only 16. Sad day. Because of the amount of diving there I usually witness at least several emergency calls there each year.
Ken Kurtis
Contributor
I've been diving for 34 years and have directly dealt with 2 fatalities. One was on one of our charters at a site (Farnsworth Banks) where I'd given a briefing that included the admonition not to go deeper than 100 feet and the buddy team had decided that they wanted to see what it was like to go to 150'. I think the guy that died, from lookling at the breathing rate on his air-integrated computer, basically scared himself to death. Bad decision-making, especially in the face of having been specifcally warned "Don't do this."
The second case was indirect as I was teaching a badsic class at the Avalon UW Park and was on the first dive of the checkout, which for me is the 30-45 minute skin dive that culminates in rescue drills which we generally do at the back end (50-70' depth area) of the Park. No sooner had I gotten the words "It's doubtful you'll ever be involved in a real-life rescue situation" out of my mouth than one of my students said, "Ken, there's a woman behind you waving for help." I turned around and sure enough, there was. I left the class with my assistant and went over to help. The woman's buddy was unconscious on the bottom. As I was about to grab her tank and weights to go down, I saw another diver coming up with the victim. I positioned myself to do a surface intercept and immediately started mouth-to-mouth as they surfaced. By this time we had fire response on-shore and a Harbor Patrol boat coming in behind us. We swam her in and handed her off. She was treated in the Chamber, never fully recovered, was kept on life-support for a few months, and then her parents made the decision to discontinue thaand let her go. It was her first dive after about a 2-year layoff, they came to the Park because they percevied it as safe and benign, and she had mask-clearing problems which appears to have been the trigger.
But more important IMHO is, for those who are supervisory-level folks reading this (aka "potential rescuers and litigants") is to be very pro-acvtive.
We had another sitiation at Farnsworth (gorgeous dive but deep, currents, and can be very advanced) where I'd given the usual briefing. I always have three DMs on duty: one on the back deck co-ordinating and logging divers in/out, one on the bow ready to jump if needed, and one in the water. Diver jumps in and his reg starts free-flowing. My back-deck DM is yelling down to him but diver is doggedly making his way forward to the anchor line. She (DM) yells up to me (I was the bow jumper). I visually pick him up and start yelling down to him to no avail. He continues forward (doesn't appear to have a buddy), gets to the anchor line, lifts his head out of the water, doesn't hear me still yelling at him, and does a head-first dive down the line. I'm thinking to myself, "This won't last long" but at the same time I don't like this situation.
My in-water guy happens to be coming along towards the ancho rline so I yell down to him, "Maurice, go after the guy in the lime-green fins and see how much air he has. He's free-lfwoing." Mauirce signals OK and heads down after the guy. Maurice catches up with him around 100' and the guy was still heading deeper. Maurice gets his attention and motions "How much air do you have?" Without looking at his gauge the guy gives an OK sign. Maurice shakes his head, points to his eyes, points to the guy's gauge, and again asks, "How much?" Now the guy looks at his gauge (remember that he was 100 feet deep and going deeper) and indicates 300psi and then . . . GIVES AN OK SIGN. Maurice motions "No. You & me. Up. Now." They begin to ascend together face-to-face with Maurice holding on to the BC chest strap of the guy (as I taught him in his DM class) so he can't bolt and get away. Of course, the guy quickly runs out of air on nthe ascent, Maurice puts him on his (Maurice's) octo and they continue the safe ascent to the surface.
I am convinced to this day (and I use this story frequently as a teaching example) that without our entire supervisory team being extremely pro-active (far more so than any training agency would ever advise you to be), that this was an out-of-air situation waiting to happen that easily could have resulted in an embolism and a death.
So the question is not only how many incidents have you been involved with, but also how many incidents have you prevented through awareness, early intervention, etc.? How many scenarios would have had a different outcome had you (or someone else) not intervened steered/prevented the diver from becoming a victim?
- Ken
The second case was indirect as I was teaching a badsic class at the Avalon UW Park and was on the first dive of the checkout, which for me is the 30-45 minute skin dive that culminates in rescue drills which we generally do at the back end (50-70' depth area) of the Park. No sooner had I gotten the words "It's doubtful you'll ever be involved in a real-life rescue situation" out of my mouth than one of my students said, "Ken, there's a woman behind you waving for help." I turned around and sure enough, there was. I left the class with my assistant and went over to help. The woman's buddy was unconscious on the bottom. As I was about to grab her tank and weights to go down, I saw another diver coming up with the victim. I positioned myself to do a surface intercept and immediately started mouth-to-mouth as they surfaced. By this time we had fire response on-shore and a Harbor Patrol boat coming in behind us. We swam her in and handed her off. She was treated in the Chamber, never fully recovered, was kept on life-support for a few months, and then her parents made the decision to discontinue thaand let her go. It was her first dive after about a 2-year layoff, they came to the Park because they percevied it as safe and benign, and she had mask-clearing problems which appears to have been the trigger.
But more important IMHO is, for those who are supervisory-level folks reading this (aka "potential rescuers and litigants") is to be very pro-acvtive.
We had another sitiation at Farnsworth (gorgeous dive but deep, currents, and can be very advanced) where I'd given the usual briefing. I always have three DMs on duty: one on the back deck co-ordinating and logging divers in/out, one on the bow ready to jump if needed, and one in the water. Diver jumps in and his reg starts free-flowing. My back-deck DM is yelling down to him but diver is doggedly making his way forward to the anchor line. She (DM) yells up to me (I was the bow jumper). I visually pick him up and start yelling down to him to no avail. He continues forward (doesn't appear to have a buddy), gets to the anchor line, lifts his head out of the water, doesn't hear me still yelling at him, and does a head-first dive down the line. I'm thinking to myself, "This won't last long" but at the same time I don't like this situation.
My in-water guy happens to be coming along towards the ancho rline so I yell down to him, "Maurice, go after the guy in the lime-green fins and see how much air he has. He's free-lfwoing." Mauirce signals OK and heads down after the guy. Maurice catches up with him around 100' and the guy was still heading deeper. Maurice gets his attention and motions "How much air do you have?" Without looking at his gauge the guy gives an OK sign. Maurice shakes his head, points to his eyes, points to the guy's gauge, and again asks, "How much?" Now the guy looks at his gauge (remember that he was 100 feet deep and going deeper) and indicates 300psi and then . . . GIVES AN OK SIGN. Maurice motions "No. You & me. Up. Now." They begin to ascend together face-to-face with Maurice holding on to the BC chest strap of the guy (as I taught him in his DM class) so he can't bolt and get away. Of course, the guy quickly runs out of air on nthe ascent, Maurice puts him on his (Maurice's) octo and they continue the safe ascent to the surface.
I am convinced to this day (and I use this story frequently as a teaching example) that without our entire supervisory team being extremely pro-active (far more so than any training agency would ever advise you to be), that this was an out-of-air situation waiting to happen that easily could have resulted in an embolism and a death.
So the question is not only how many incidents have you been involved with, but also how many incidents have you prevented through awareness, early intervention, etc.? How many scenarios would have had a different outcome had you (or someone else) not intervened steered/prevented the diver from becoming a victim?
- Ken
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It may be somewhat related with whom and where I 've decided to dive. This is not entirely true as I dived with an operator in San Diego that eventually closed due to safety violatons and incidents. Maybe I've just been very lucky so far. In some ways I'm expecting something to happen and hope I'm in a position to intervene and improve the outcome. I'm ready.
Good diving, Craig
bullfroger
Registered
Not been around any death in 30 years. Did stop a panicing novice who was trying to race to the surface by grabing him from behind and dumping my bc. He still pulled me to the surface but at a safe speed. I am pretty sure it was his last dive.
Last year I did my Rescue Certification. I was decided to take that course, but it was not until an Incident (not accident) that I firmly decided to take it asap.
I was in a business travel in Miami and I decided to do a 2 tank excursion in the Emerald reef with RJ Diving. I was buddied with some one that mentioned that he was familiar with the site.
It was a warm day, but the water was still not so warm. My instabuddy used very little exposure protection. After something like 25 minutes underwater, my instabuddy signaled me that he was cold. Emerald Reef is a nice shallow dive site, no more than 9 meters depth (30 feet), so we had still plenty air in our tanks. We went up and we surfaced more than 200 yards from the boat. My instabuddy took off his mask and reg and started the panic loop. I´ve heard many times before the stop-breath-think-act panic stop procedure, so I prompted him to relocate his mask and reg, inflate his BCD and we will start to swim slowly to the boat. I could manage this simple situation though I was still not a rescue diver. We swam to the boat and all ended well. He did not do the second dive.
I was in a business travel in Miami and I decided to do a 2 tank excursion in the Emerald reef with RJ Diving. I was buddied with some one that mentioned that he was familiar with the site.
It was a warm day, but the water was still not so warm. My instabuddy used very little exposure protection. After something like 25 minutes underwater, my instabuddy signaled me that he was cold. Emerald Reef is a nice shallow dive site, no more than 9 meters depth (30 feet), so we had still plenty air in our tanks. We went up and we surfaced more than 200 yards from the boat. My instabuddy took off his mask and reg and started the panic loop. I´ve heard many times before the stop-breath-think-act panic stop procedure, so I prompted him to relocate his mask and reg, inflate his BCD and we will start to swim slowly to the boat. I could manage this simple situation though I was still not a rescue diver. We swam to the boat and all ended well. He did not do the second dive.
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