Body Recovery and Equipment

[DiveExplorer]

I was wondering what procedures do you have after body recovery. Do you clean your equipment only with fresh water like it´s just a normal dive or do you clean you equipment extremely well.

I been involved in many body recovery's but they are never the same. I would say that it´s very different to dive after a body which are relatively "new" in fresh lake or badly decomposed in the ocean.

It would be interesting to hear your thought´s about this subject.

 

[Jared0425]

On our team we wash everything from the divers to the equipment used, we also put in decontaminates on the heavily used equipment for 24 hours and hand dry them. Same with our suits after soap and water.

 

[DiveExplorer]

Thank you for your post Jared.

I was hoping more PSD divers would share their SOP about this subject with us. Maybe this is just pretty basic.

 

[Jared0425]

Well it is a tough subject to answer. To my knowledge there is no a standard procedure to the issue. When we recover a body where the public can gain easy access to, we put the victim in a special draining body bag underwater, so that when we surface, the only thing people see is the bag whether the body is preserved or badly decomposed. In private areas we can be more leanent and let the detectives photograph the victim on the stretcher, and the EMS crew can use their own. After ANY recovery as stated above, we take the upmost sanitary precedures we can. We even get out of our suits when they finish washing them down and then they procede to wash our bodies down whether we are wet or dry (winter is an exception to this rule).

 

[DiveExplorer]

Yes we have the same procedures.. Most often we recover things in cold or very cold environment. But if it badly decomposed, or it is most likely that the body has been in the water/sea we try to use full face mask and clean our equipment very well afterwards.

But we have only use water and soap in that matter. As of yet we have not use any chemicals to kill bacterias or try to get rid of the odor as we don't know it could ruin or damage the dive suit. Maybe there is some smart content that can be used or maybe there is no need to. Maybe using soap and water is more that adequate.

 

[Jared0425]

Depending on what suit you wear it should not matter. If you are using the Viking, that thing could take any chemicals you throw at it.

 

[Yotsie]

We always mix up a batch of a decon solution and have it standing by in a backpack style weed sprayer. When our primary diver exits the water, they are escorted by their tender to a wash down station and sprayed with this solution. Depending on the severity of the exposure, we will rinse the diver or scrub them down then rinse. Either way, everyone coming out of the water gets decon'd with this solution.

 

[sheeper]

the best industry procedures are likely to be found from ERDI (www.tdisdi.com). They are the leader in PSD and are responsible for training the best.

 

[ChinatownBus]

Thanks for sharing this post. Truly it is very interesting subject.

 

[SHADOW/LAFD]

Simple Green d Pro 3

Simple Green "D" is what we use in a sprayer.