Who has performed a rescue?

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've been involved in a few OOA/LOA incidents over the years, but the closest thing to a real rescue happened without the divers ever leaving the surface. Three of us were surface swimming out to a wreck at a popular dive park on a large tidal exchange day when we got caught in a swirling current that pushed two of us in the direction we wanted to go while taking the third diver straight out away from shore. Me and the other diver made it to a buoy where we hung on, watching our companion get sucked out past the park boundary buoy. It was clear he wasn't going to be able to help himself, so I told my companion to head in and call for help while I tried to make my way to our companion and see if I could help him. After about 10 minutes of fairly strenuous kicking ... and aided by the current that was now pushing me as well as him out into the Sound ... I was able to catch up to him. The dude was exhausted ... he'd been trying to kick against that current the whole time. I told him to just lay on his back and relax, while I got behind him and started towing him using a basic tank tow. It was slow going, but we were making headway. After about 15 minutes we'd made it back to one of the boundary buoys. By then I was pretty tired too. We hung onto the buoy for another 10 minutes or so, and after catching our breath decided to try heading in. By then the current was slowed down considerably, and the swim in was long but not particularly bad. We made it back to shore more than an hour after we'd left to head out for our dive ... having never gone below the surface. By the time we got in there were rescue vehicles on the beach and the local ferry had launched a RIB to go out and search for us ... apparently nobody had noticed us hanging onto that buoy way out at the park boundary, and assumed we'd been swept out into open water. All ended well ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[altaskier]

I had one this last summer, diving in Lake Michigan. My wife stumbled a bit stepping off the boat on a night dive to a shallow wreck (35') and hit the water a bit hard. I learned the next day that she was perplexed by why she didn't seem to be getting neutral with her BCD but she liked to use her drysuit for buoyancy (following the PADI drysuit course, which I strongly disagree with). Then she got a bit feet-up while looking at one part of the wreck, and did the drysuit floatie-to-the-surface thing. We were diving as threesome with another guy who was in the lake for the first time, so I first made sure he paired up with the other dive group and then I went up to the surface (she was easy to spot because of her flashlight). When I got there, it became clear that she was struggling a bit, and in fact in her struggles she had kicked off her fins! I tried to inflate her BCD but it wasn't working, and when I realized the inflator hose was disconnected I made a quick try to reconnect it but between my 5 mm gloves and her thrashing about a bit I decided the best thing to do was to tow her to the boat (she still had her second stage in her mouth and seemed to be OK when her face would dip in the water on occasion during the tow). It wasn't a super-long tow and the boat captain tossed us a grab ring on the end of the line, so we got her on the boat.

So it could have gone farther south... and it took my wife a minute to calm down after she was on the boat.

The really good thing is that this got her to be interested in getting things dialed in. Two weeks later, with new spring-strap fins, she ended up ditching about 7 pounds of lead and is now using her BCD for buoyancy and her drysuit inflator for squeeze.

The evening ended with further interesting twists with boat problems but that's another story. The good thing is we all made it back in, though with water in the hull and one of the two engines out!

 

[KevinG58]

A few years ago diving in Truk and about 20 minutes after we splashed I saw a diver swimming down and away from the wreck, and their movements didn't look "smooth". I swam to them (monitoring my depth and clipping off my camera as I went) and grabbed the BC and stabilized our depth (IIRC ended up at about 120 feet). I got us mask-to-mask, their eyes were darting about and couldn't / wouldn't meet my gaze. I signed for us to ascend and the only response was more eye-darting.
I went ahead and dragged them up (fortunately they were docile) about 20 feet and then got a OK sign. We thumbed it and returned to our boat. The somewhat frantic buddy found us at the safety stop.

Discussion on the boat: The relatively new diver had become narced and decided it would be a great idea to check out the big blue. Swam off while their buddy's back was turned. We were diving recreational profiles at the deep-ish end of the spectrum.

 

[Erich S]

It's good to see that all of our rescues were successful and thanks for posting all your interesting experiences.

 

[Rhone Man]

The DM was acquitted of criminal liability by claiming that he believed that his life was in danger and that he fled, leaving the student behind, in order to save his own life. In the Netherlands there is no law saying that you are required to risk death to save the life of another. I don't personally believe that what he said is true. I think when the student ran out of air the DM panicked and bolted and lied about it in court but he was well represented by a smart lawyer and got off with this story. In the civil case he was found guilty and successfully sued.

Remember that there is a high standard of proof in criminal cases. If you think he was lying, then he should be acquitted. It is only if you are certain that he is lying beyond a reasonable doubt he should be convicted.*

Civil liability is another matter entirely.


*Assuming Dutch criminal law is like more civilised countries.

 

[fisheater]

I have. On a boat dive in Monterey, I encountered a solo diver from the same boat who was very, very low on air. I put him on my main reg (with a 7' hose) and we made a safe assent. At the surface, he had enough of his tank air to inflate, which he did, but thereafter panicked. He took off his mask and stared off into the distance. He wouldn't turn towards me or the boat. He wouldn't respond to my commands. Eventually, I towed him to the boat by his tank valve. Once he was at the ladder and the DM was right in his face (in Calif., the DM stays on board unless there's an emergency), he "snapped out of it" and climbed aboard.

Of course, he never did thank me.

Things progressed pretty much as the Rescue Course taught me. It's an invaluable course.

 

[TMHeimer]

I just read the OP. Interesting that the instructor knew he was having a heart attack. I guess that's something you know is happening even if you haven't had one before. My only experience was once during an OW checkout I did a tired diver tow, which is just an assist. For the 4 years I DMd courses I was concerned that I never experienced a serious situation, and still haven't. I guess they're just so rare. I have asked instructors about it and the usual response was that they had one or 2 experiences out of hundreds of classes and situations. 98% of my diving now is solo, so unless it's self rescue, it's very unlikely I'll ever be involved with one. The only time I've even seen CPR (diving related or not) is on TV and I'm almost 63.

 

[Scott]

I remember my first one.
I was a DM for an OW course and was brought in by the instructor to help with the OW checkout dives. As we started to descend on dive one, one guy started breathing heavy and signaled he wanted to go up. On the surface he kept claiming he couldn't breathe. In those days farmer john suits were common so I unbuckled his BC and unzipped the top on the way to shore. Getting him out of his gear and back on shore sitting down I finished pulling off the top and peeled the bottom down around his waist. By that time the instructor had all the students up and back on shore and he helped pull the guys t-shirt off. We discovered at that time the guy had lied on his medical and had incisions on his chest from a recent surgery. The guy said diving was a lifelong dream and knew the surgery would have prevented him from participating, so he marked No. I don't recall the exact words the instructor said but it wasn't kind. Needless he was dry docked and sent packing. Asked how he got past seeing the scar during confined water, he always wore a shirt or neoprene vest.

Most recent was in Roatan at the conclusion of a dive at Mary's Place. I was the last of the group to exit. Upon exiting the guide still had the group hanging around, which was not normal during the previous dives I have been on there. On the way back to the boat I notice a diver, we'll call him John, frantically looking at his gauge. As I kicked up to him he was about to give a buddy a few feet away the OOA signal. When he looked up from the gauge again he had my secondary sitting in front of him and his buddy was turned and deploying and ready. On the ascent he gave a tap on the shoulder as a thanks and said in person on the boat.
Funny or sadly enough I swam past a DM from another state who was totally oblivious to what was going on. The only thing he said on the boat was "you an instructor?" Not sure what that had to do with anything.

 

[Crowley]

I thought I'd chip in as it's been a while since I posted anything - but it's a good topic of conversation. I worked as an instructor and guide between 2005 - 2014 and have had to deal with a few emergencies. The first was not long after my rescue course and I was a DMT, assisting on a PADI Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) - an "intro dive" - and the instructor really screwed up. We were supposed to train in a shallow bay but he let us drift too far from the beach and we got caught in a slight current at the surface and suddenly the instructor is trying to conduct a descent for a complete novice in 9m of water.

The customer was quite obese (sorry if that term offends but I mean it in the medical sense) and wearing a lot of lead - and probably way too much. I am sure it was 16kg (which is like 35lbs) and although I was new at the time, looking back with my professional judgement I would say that he was maybe 4kg (8.8lbs) overweighted. He suddenly started screaming that he was having chest pains and he started to remove his BCD - but not his weights. I know this sounds like an advertisement for a course but - my recent rescue training kicked in. There really was a sudden moment of clarity when I thought - the instructor (I didn't know him well) - was useless, we are drifting in a moderate current and this big fella is trying to remove his BCD, but not 16kg of weight, in 9 metres of water with maybe 5 metres /15 feet of good viz.

I ditched his weight belt, took the guy in the modified swimmers' carry - where you place their feet on your shoulders and push the diver along - and pedalled as hard as my little legs would carry us back to the dive boat. Every now and then I took my reg out and tried to shout instructions to the boat (full of DMTs) to get oxygen and whatnot, figuring that it would save time to waste a second in the water to save 30 seconds back on the boat, which is probably about the time it took them to notice us, and also the time I spent finning against the current until a boat from a different dive centre - that was much closer by - saw us and picked us up. The guy may well have had a heart attack, but after 20 minutes back on boat he seemed fine. If he'd sunk in 9m water wearing that much lead? Probably not so fine.

The instructor, by the way, never worked for our dive centre again.

Now - I know that makes me sound just like the most awesome DMT ever (heheh! ) - but it's also objectively true. I had just participated in an excellent rescue course, Once I got my brain in gear everything came quite naturally. Its difficult to know how people will respond in an emergency but it was the first time it happened to me. I've seen other people panic - I've had some crazy moments. I also know for 100% sure that other recently trained rescue divers will get on the ball and help out. I've seen it happen. I had to deal with a life-threatening irukanji sting once, and I told our rescue divers and DMTs what to do to assist with the treatment and the evacuation and some of them went "ooohpoop" and stood back, but some of them got stuck in and started making phone calls, and explaining to others why we have to abort, and sounding an underwater alert (three bangs metal on metal) and it was great. It was all a bit Hollywood but it worked, and we got the irukanji sting guy to hospital within the hour, which given our location in Thailand was pretty damn good actually!

The DSD thing happened to me early in my career, and it's something I have always referred back to as an instructor. The last time I had to deal with a real emergency was five years ago in Egypt and a Stonefish sting (also regularly fatal) and my colleagues and I - seasoned professionals by now - went back to the same training - ABCD, or ABCABs or whatever it is now - Airway (yup, he's still screaming), Breathing (Yup, screaming), and so on - and the whole medical interview about last meal and prescription medication and allergies. He was allergic to aspirin - we told the doctors - they gave him something else, because bleeding in your stomach will not help if you are fighting a stonefish sting.

So I don't really care what some people say about Rescue courses, I say: just do them. Do your Rescue training, whatever form it takes, and from whatever (approved) agency is most convenient. Even if you start off knowing nothing, you will know a whole lot more in a few days. There is some merit in the argument that having a bit of experience before commencing Rescue training will help - but it really does vary substantially from person to person, so it's difficult to use a precise figure.

Apologies for blabbing on - but it's become a personal philosophy based on experience, and I encourage all divers to undertake some form of first aid and rescue diver training. also to use the modified swimmer's carry if you need to get a person back to the boat quickly and you are also not Michael Phelps, and never, every tickle the stonefish.

Safe Diving,

C.

 

[Erich S]

The Rescue Diver cert sounds worth while but back when I was certified in the late 70s there was no such certification. I was lucky that my OW course consisted of CPR and life saving which was a big help to me in knowing what to do.